Paul Heffernan and his men will make the short journey up to Belfield for the 145, or now E1 derby this Friday 21st February.
The Seagulls go into this game on the back of a tight and hard fought 0-1 win over Longford Town to start the season strongly. UCD suffered a heavy 3-0 battering at the hands of Wexford, which has them at the bottom of the table after the opening week.
While we got the better of UCD when it mattered most last season in the playoff SF, this is a rare victory in the recent meetings of the sides. It was only Bray’s 3rd win in 10 against UCD, and the only time we beat them last season, which isn’t pleasant reading for Bray supporters.
Both sides went through a lot of changes during the winter, with Bray letting go of players like Cole Omorehiomwan and Cristian Magerusan, while bringing in replacements such as Thomas Considine and Danu Kinsella-Bishop, but in my opinion our squad has definitely weakened.
UCD lost players such as, of course Danu Kinsella-Bishop to Bray and Alex Dunne to Kerry, but have also strengthened, bringing in Brian McManus from Bohs and Killian Calloce from Drogs. In truth, all we have to go off is last week’s results when looking foward to this game.
It remains to be seen if Dylan Barnett will be fit for the game, after being left out of the squad against Longford due to injury. Guillermo Almirall returned from injury and featured in the squad last time out.
As for UCD, team news is few and far between, but it seems they have a fully fit squad
The game will be streamed live on LOITV this Friday 21st February at 19.45.
MY PREDICTION: UCD 1- 3 Bray.
I don’t think it will be easy to Bray, but I feel they have enough quality in the squad to get the job done.