Following an impressive away win for the Kingdom last Friday night, Kerry FC return to the hallowed turf of Mounthawk Park after a 3-week hiatus as they take on UCD AFC tomorrow evening.
With the clocks due to jump an hour on Saturday night, Kerry also have a spring in their step heading into the weekend. A historic victory over Wexford FC in Ferrycarrig Park has the mood in the county on cloud 9. Just the club’s second ever away victory in the league and the first to come on the grass surface had the Kerry faithful singing on the 4-hour journey home from the rainy south east last week.
But the Kingdom will have to refocus attention back to on-field action, and a sticky test lies in wait for Conor McCarthy’s side with the students of UCD making the trip down to Mounthawk Park from the capital. On their two previous trips to Tralee, UCD have left with all 6 points on offer, something that the players and staff are sure to want overturned on the third time of asking.
UCD currently sit bottom of the table on 3 points, with no wins from the opening 5 games of the season. They’ve only played away once in their opening 5 games, with defeat coming against Athlone in Lissywollen. But they’ve managed some positive draws at home and will be looking at their trip to the Kingdom as a chance to kick-start their season.
Matchday 7
Kerry FC v UCD AFC – Friday, March 28th – 19:45 Kick Off – Mounthawk Park
Previous Meetings – All Competitions
Kerry FC Wins 0 Draws 1 UCD AFC Wins 3
Did You Know?
Alex Dunne is the only current player in both squads to line out for both Kerry FC and UCD AFC. Former UCD and Kerry FC player Ethan Kos also lined out for both sides in the past. UCD’s two previous trips to Mounthawk Park have resulted in wins for the student. The largest margin of victory in this tie was a single goal on 3 occasions, the other being a 1-1 draw in the bowl when the sides met for the first time last year.
Injury Update
Ryan Kelliher remains on the long-term injury list while Nathan Gleeson is still out for Conor McCarthy. After a bruising contest against Wexford, Kerry will be waiting for late fitness news on the likes of Sean McGrath, Ronan Teahan and Joe Adams. Abel Alabi still has 2 games remaining on his suspension after a red card against Longford Town two weeks ago.
What they said?
Assistant manager Chris Collopy – “People will look at the league table 6 games in and make their own assumptions and make expectations around where a team might finish, etc. UCD have a very strong team, and whilst they’ve always been seen as kind of a young, hungry, hard-working, they play some really impressive football. They’ve added Ronan Finn to the squad, a stalwart of League of Ireland football, his experience will continue to add to what they are looking to achieve. We can’t look at the league table and base everything on that. I’d rather be asked that question on Matchweek 36, where you might have a fair idea of where teams are going to finish. The most important thing is we refocus ourselves, which we have, and we look forward to what is going to be a very different challenge on Friday night against UCD.
