Thursday night’s match in Richmond Park kicks off at 7.45 pm Live coverage on LOITV.

Due to international call-ups, the Galway United away and Bohemians home games were postponed last week. So, almost two weeks on from our 2-0 win over Drogheda United away, how do you reflect on that performance and an important three points?

“I thought aspects of it were really good, when you consider we had Markus Poom, Lee Grace and Darragh Nugent as our back three who’d never played together. We had Aaron McEneff just coming back and I thought Cory O’Sullivan did really well. So there were really good aspects to the performance and two really good goals to win the game. So we were really happy to get out of there with a clean sheet also and happy with the three points.”

Having lost Pico Lopes, Dan Cleary and Josh Honohan for the Drogheda game, as a result of the Shelbourne game, and Seán Hoare still out, we had one recognised senior centre back available. Was that team selection the most difficult of your time as manager in terms of who’d play where and how did you feel Darragh Nugent and Markus Poom performed in this position?

“When you have injuries and suspensions it always throws up different headaches and difficulties. But I’d never doubt the players in terms of knowing that I could play Darragh Nugent in goal or up front for example, and that he’ll perform. Is it his best position? we know it isn’t, but we know he’ll perform because of the type of character he is. Darragh and Markus were brilliant in Drogheda, if you look at Markus this year, I don’t think he’s played in his settled position for a number of weeks. But he’s dealt with it and just got on with it and showed real maturity in that. The players have been excellent in that regard when we’ve been down bodies. They’ve stepped up and done what’s been asked of them and that’s all you can ask.”

Cory O’Sullivan made his full league debut as left wing back in a difficult fixture. He looked as if he’d played in the first team for a long time.

“Cory has been around us quite a bit in the last few years, maybe not as much as we’d have liked due to his schooling, but he’s finished school this week and will be with us full time. I was really pleased with how he dealt with the Drogheda game, but I also wasn’t surprised. We’ve been doing alot of work with Cory for a long time, but when you’re young and thrown into that environment, you just don’t know until they play. But young players in general, when you trust them, put them in at the right times and give them their head, they always seem to surprise and amaze you, in terms of how they deal with things. Cory was excellent.”

Conan Noonan was called up for the first time to the Ireland U21s for the games against Croatia and England, coming on against England so that’s a fitting reward for his performances this season.

“I’m absolutely delighted for Conan and his family. We all know the struggles he has had over the past eighteen months, it delayed his development here in terms of on the pitch. But this year, and the end of last year, we’ve seen Conan play a lot more and, be free. I’m delighted for him and his family that he’s got to represent his country at U21 level. It’s a big honour and I spoke to him a few times during the week, so we’re all extremely proud of him, the staff, players, club, we should be. He gets back today (Wednesday) and we can’t wait to welcome him back in.”

So we get back to league action this week away to St. Pat’s. We lost 2-1 there recently but Stephen Kenny has since replaced Jon Daly. Do you foresee anything much different to Pat’s since that defeat since Stephen returned to take over?

“Pat’s have changed slightly in certain aspects of what they do and how they play. You can see Stephen’s ideas starting to come into what they do. There are slight changes in how they attack and how they defend, but which is quite normal when a new manager comes in. So we’ve got to be ready for that. Our performance there the last time, as I said before, was really good and we just didn’t get the rewards. So, we know we need to be at those levels again if we want to win the game. It’s a Dublin derby and the last game before a little break, so we want to go there and win.”

Jack Byrne missed the last game in Drogheda, was that merely for a rest after his recent return or an injury, and what’s our availability for this game before another short league break?

“It was a bit of both for Jack. He’d played two games after being out for a long time, but he felt tight which is only natural. So we took him out for Drogheda, but he’s ok for St. Pat’s. We won’t risk Trevor Clarke but he’s just there. You’re at a point if you push it too early you could end up back at square one. Seán Hoare is unavailable, we’ll look at Rory Gaffney today (Wednesday). We got good news on Darragh Burns, he’s just there, Josh Honohan is fine after his concussion against Shelbourne, he was cleared last Sunday. Gary O’Neill is fine and has been training, but again we don’t want to rush him too early, but he’s had no issues the last week with training, if it was a cup final tomorrow he’d be there, but we have to be patient. Dan Cleary will be available after the break. Seán Kavanagh will be the longest out of them all.”