Kidare County -v- Mervue United

• Daire Walsh
• Thu, Oct 01 2009


The fight for survival in the First Division is set to reach boiling point this Friday evening in Station Road when Kildare County play host to fellow strugglers Mervue United (kick-off 8.00pm). Both sides go into this match on the back of defeats in their previous games against title-chasing opposition. Kildare County were hammered 5-0 by UCD in the Belfield Bowl, while Mervue United lost out to Shelbourne 4-2, having twice held the lead.

Johnny Flaherty and Joey Somerville will both have to contend with a number of suspensions, which could weaken their hands considerably. Mervue will be missing Alex Lee and Mark Ludden (who were both sent-off last week), while Eric Browne will also sit the game out following his eighth yellow-card of the campaign. Whereas, in Kildare's case, they will have to do without Davy Byrne, Christy Doran, Baba Isaaka and Darren O'Brien (four yellow-cards each), as well as Craig Purcell for his straight red-card against The Students.

All this means that Somerville will need to call up quite a few Under-20 players to his line-up, but the former Cherry Orchard boss is making no excuses and expects big things from his side.

“We’ll be alright I think. Friday night’s game is not going to be about how pretty you are, it’s about what result you get. It doesn’t matter what way it comes to you as long as it comes to you. We’ll certainly be setting out a team that is capable of causing problems and that will work hard and show a degree of honesty. Between the two teams on Friday, I think the one that shows the most honesty will win,” explained Somerville.

Somerville has made The Thoroughbreds a hard team to break down since he took them over earlier on in the season, but last week was a low point for him and he will be hoping that his side can redeem themselves tomorrow evening.

“Last week was a complete and absolute embarrassment, there is no other way to describe it. They (the players) embarrassed themselves, they embarrassed me, Keith O’Halloran, and Jimmy Kelly but most importantly they embarrassed the club. I’m still trying to get my head around what happened but I can assure you that won’t happen this week.”

In total, the two sides have met each other on a total of four occasions, with all their encounters taking place within the last 11 months. They met each other in the relegation/promotion play-off last November, with the first leg in Fahy's Field, Galway ending in a 2-2 draw, with Philly Hughes bagging a brace of goals for County in reply to Mervue goals by Ollie Keogh and Dave Goldbey. The second-leg in Station Road would go the way of the Westerners as they emerged with a commanding 3-0 win, with two goals from the lively Goldbey and David O'Brien grabbing the other.

Of course, this wasn't the end for Kildare, as they came back into the league following the demotion of Cobh Ramblers, and they faced Mervue at Station Road in April of this year when they once again lost 3-0. County would finally get their first win over Mervue in Terryland Park a few months back (which coincidentally was also their first win of the season), with Dean Barrett getting a hat-trick in a 4-1 win for County. The two results between these sides this season shows us that both teams are well capable of scoring goals against one another, so it will be intriguing to see how this game turns out.

A win for either side would do absolute wonders for their chances this year. A win for Kildare would mean the gap would only be four points between the bottom two with five games to go, while a Mervue victory would almost guarantee their safety as ten points would leave County with an awful lot of work to do.
,br /> However, despite their gallant effort last Friday, recent results would suggest that a win may be just beyond their reach at the moment, and Kildare may just sneak victory as they simply can't afford anything less than three points.

Extratime.ie Prediction: Kildare County 2 Mervue United 1.