The Kingdom are on the road for the final time before the mid-season break this Friday night, and it’s a first-ever trip to County Louth and to Oriel Park to take on league leaders Dundalk FC.
An exciting prospect in store for the Kingdom, who can tick another ground off the League of Ireland bucket list tomorrow evening. With a near full supporters’ bus heading from Mounthawk Park, the Kerry faithful will be looking for reward for their efforts on a near 10-hour round trip from the south-west.
Kerry are on their longest unbeaten stretch of the season to date, going 3 unbeaten over the last number of weeks, starting with a 1-0 win on the road to UCD. That performance was backed up by the arrival of Colin Healy as manager, who has a home win and a draw to his name against Treaty United & Wexford FC, respectively.
Dundalk, on the other hand, has a 4-point cushion at the summit of the division. But 4 draws in the last 6 games have seen what was a larger gap at the top closed by the likes of Bray Wanderers and Cobh Ramblers in the last number of weeks.
Just the one meeting between the sides in the past ended in a narrow 1-0 win for the Lilywhites in Mounthawk Park on Matchday 3, but Kerry will take plenty of positives from that result and will hope to go one better in Oriel Park tomorrow night.
Matchday 3
Dundalk FC v Kerry FC – Friday, May 23rd – 19:45 Kick Off – Oriel Park
Previous Meetings – All Competitions
Kerry FC Wins 0 Draws 0 Dundalk FC Wins 1
Did You Know?
This is the first-ever meeting of Kerry FC and Dundalk in Oriel Park. In fact, it’s Kerry’s first ever trip to county Louth and the bus will be going northbound on the M50 for the first time. Former Kerry FC forward Leo Gaxha is the only man in both squads to have previously worn both the green of Kerry and the white of Dundalk.
Injury Update
Ryan Kelliher remains absent from the Kerry squad ahead of the trip to Dundalk tomorrow evening. Luke Palmer made his comeback last Friday night after a small knock kept him out. Alex Dunne, had a slight niggle which kept him out last week and will be assessed ahead of the trip to Dundalk. Daniel Okwute will be absent as he has received 5 yellow cards and will serve a one-match suspension.
What they said?
Colin Healy – “It’s a difficult place to go, but I think we are in a good place at the moment. In the last 3 games, we’ve had 2 wins and a draw, confidence is definitely up. Players are playing with a belief. We saw that against Wexford, where we had a lot of chances and a good performance, and I thought we were unfortunate to come away with just a point from the game. I think the players should be relishing going to Dundalk, going in with that confidence, and can we go and get the 3 points? There is no reason we can’t have that approach for the game. I know they are the top team in the division, with serious players and a great manager, but from my point of view, we need to be going up there to give it everything we have and see if we can get a result there.”
