Quigley hopes to keep up his great strike rate

HE HAS never received the warmest of welcomes when returning to the club where he made his name a few years back but Mark Quigley will be more unpopular than ever around Richmond Park if he maintains his remarkable recent run of goals tonight for Sligo Rovers.

The striker heads to Inchicore in great form having scored seven times in the last six league games, a timely run that has helped his side to stay firmly on course for a first title in 35 years despite the loss to injury of top scorer Danny North. “I’m delighted,” he says.

“I’m fit, I’m playing football and everything has clicked into place for me over the last while, but then the whole team has been playing well and everything is that little bit easier when you have fellas like Joseph Ndo, Danny Ventre and David Cawley behind you.”

The latter has been in tremendous form since returning home from England and Quigley reckons he has been the best midfielder in the country this season. There are a few other contenders but what’s beyond debate just now is that Sligo have been the best team and a win tonight would send them 11 points clear at the top of the table, an almost uncatchable position at this stage of the campaign.

“I think there’s a lot of confidence around the squad at the moment,” says Quigley, “but it’s because we’ve been playing well and winning games rather than because we think the title’s in the bag. When we’re talking about it it’s still very much ‘if’ we win it, not ‘when’ we do.”

Ian Baraclough will want to keep it that way as he looks to navigate his side safely through the run-in. With North out, he has been hugely boosted by Quigley’s run but Pascal Millien has come good in recent weeks too and the Haitian international is a surprise contender to start this evening after appearing to have picked up a hamstring injury in the win over UCD on Monday.

“He trained,” confirms Quigley, “but I don’t have any idea who’ll start. There are a lot of players pushing to be involved so the manager is in a good position with some tough decisions to make.”

Liam Buckley is probably in the tougher position of having to engineer a win if St Patrick’s lingering chances of a crack at the title aren’t to completely evaporate. He has Kenny Browne and Darren Meenan available again after suspension but John Russell will have a late test on an ankle problem.