Preview – Cobh Ramblers v Cabinteely

Friday night sees Cobh Ramblers visit the Capital to take on First Division leaders Cabinteely in Stradbrook. Cobh come into the game on the back of a 2-2 draw with Galway United, while Cabo also drew their last fixture, a 0-0 stalemate in Wexford.

The Rams’  last win against Friday’s opponents came back in May 2018 when a Cian Leonard strike proved the difference in a 1-0 win at St Colman’s Park. Since then it’s been two draws and two defeats against the South Dublin outfit and Stuart Ashton will be looking to change that as soon as possible.

Ramblers have a fully fit squad to choose from, with Ben O’Riordan and Kev Taylor available after suspension and injury respectively. Greg Henry suffered a slight knock in the Galway tie but it isn’t expected to rule him out for this encounter.

With plenty to play for in a competitive First Division, a first away win of the year for Cobh could place the Rams as high as fifth on Friday night.

Manager Stuart Ashton is positive ahead of the game, but wary of a strong Cabinteely side,

“They’re the in-form team, they’ve hit the ground running and are unbeaten all season. As always when go up there, we expect a challenging game. They are well organised under Pat Devlin and know their system, we have to go up there and try and upset the apple cart. We can take lots of positives from last week and we’ll learn from our small lapses in concentration. If we can do that we’ll be in good shape. The lads have their lowdown on what needs to be done and let’s see if we can give them a good game.”

Captain Pierce Phillips also gave his thoughts prior to the game,

“It’ll be a more direct game compared to the last two that we played. We’ve set up for that with the video analysis this week. It’ll be tough but we want three points and that’s what we hope that we’ll come away with.”

Kick-off on Friday is at 19:45, with Cabinteely live streaming the game.