Match Preview: Cabinteely v Cobh Ramblers

Ramblers are back on the road this Friday, travelling to the Capital to take on Cabinteely. The Rams make the trip to Stradbrook on the back of last week’s home defeat to Galway United, while Cabo picked up an impressive 2-1 win at leaders Athlone in their last outing. The Galway loss ended a three game unbeaten run for Ramblers, including a first win of the season in Wexford.

While Ramblers sit eighth in the First Division table at the moment, three points on Friday could see them overtake both Galway and Bray depending on results elsewhere. Cabinteely currently occupy fifth in the table, four points off Athlone Town in first.

Cabinteely are six games unbeaten in games between the sides, with Cobh’s last win over the Dubliners a 1-0 victory back in May 2018. The Stradbrook men won both meetings in 2020, 2-1 at St Colman’s Park and 1-0 on home turf.

The Rams will be without suspended centre back Charlie Lyons following his red card against Galway. He starts a three game suspension. Injuries continue to affect the squad with Pierce Phillips, Stephen O’Leary and Regix Madika all out. Having picked up an injury in the warm-up against Galway, Ciaran Griffin is also likely to miss out. On a brighter note, Ben O’Riordan, Conor Drinan and Darren Murphy should hopefully return to action.

Manager Stuart Ashton gave his thoughts ahead of the game,

“Nobody wants to be down the bottom end of the table, we’re no different to anyone else. We could have gotten off to a better start but we are where we are.

We can’t change last week’s result, we have to move on from that. The lads know it wasn’t acceptable. We can keep saying that we’re playing well here and there but the results have to start coming.

A win tomorrow puts us right back near the play-off places. We’re trying to get the group back together, fitness-wise. We want to get some consistency in our performance, that’s the main one. Once we do that, with a full healthy squad, then we can push on from there.

Cabinteely had a good win at the leaders last week. They’ll be organised, competitive, we know what we’re coming into. The lads that are selected will be up for it. We’ve trained well all week and hopefully we can do a job on the night.”

Striker Conor Drinan recently returned to full training after a hamstring problem impacted his start to the season. He also gave his views before the tie,

“No matter where you go in this league you have to put in a performance to get a result. There’s no easy game in the division, you have to be at the top of your game.

We aren’t afraid of anyone, if we perform to our best we’re capable of getting a win against anyone. We’re a much better side than what we’ve shown this season, the performances have been there at times but we want to show that more.”

Friday’s game is live on LOI TV, with one game packages available for €5. Watch the game via the link here.