Match Preview: Dundalk vs Sligo Rovers + Clarke's thoughts ahead of Friday

Rovers go into Friday's game, looking to bounce back from an agonizing 2-0 defeat to Shamrock Rovers in the Setanta Cup on Monday.

Paul Cook has a full side to choose from, and it is not known yet what changes will be made to the team that starts on Friday, but it is believed Jason McGuinness is one player who will return to the starting 11.

Dundalk are also coming off the back of a 2-0 defeat, when they were beaten in last friday's televised game against Derry City. Dundalk will be without Greg Bolger, Stephen Maher and Eoghan Osbourne for the game, who all miss out through injury.

In the wake of last Monday's defeat, I got the chance to talk to Brendan Clarke about this week's game, and firstly, he spoke of the dissapointing loss on Monday, but believes the team still has a good chance of overturning the 2-0 lead: " Obviously we're bitterly disappointed, we didn't play at all near what's expected of us or what we're capable of, but its only half time in the tie and anything can happen in football."

Brendan Clarke

Photo from Derryjournal.com

Clarke then spoke about friday's game against Dundalk: "We'll be looking to bounce back as will Dundalk after their defeat in Derry.
It'll be a very tough game as matches always are in Dundalk, but we'll get our sufficent rest and then prepare for the game in training and hopefully go there and put in a good performance."

Kick off is at 7.45 and you can listen to it live on Dundalk FM.