Richmond Park upgrade

St Patrick's Athletic chief executive Pat Dolan has confirmed that the club intends to redevelop their Richmond Park stadium over the coming years, aiming for a capacity of between 12,000 and 15,000.

The club have been frustrated by an upper limit of 8,000 seats at Richmond Park, resulting from a number of factors, including poor access. But having received positive signals from Dublin Corporation in recent weeks, Dolan now feels that they will get the backing necessary to go well beyond the 8,000 capacity.

"We've been looking around and we're going to talk to the people who did the Jodi stand at Dalymount which we're very impressed with. I would expect us to come up with fairly concrete plans in near future," said Dolan.

The club's decision to concentrate on Richmond Park follows a recommendation by the area's councillors to recommend to next week's meeting of Dublin Corporation that it proceed with the redevelopment of St Michael's Estate for housing.

The club had hoped to use a portion of that land for a new stadium but Dolan insists that "during the whole process, very senior Corporation officials made it clear how important they feel Richmond Park and St Patrick's Athletic are to the area and they have assured us that we can work together to improve the facilities we have here. It's a perfect solution from out point of view because staying here, at our spiritual home, was always out first choice."

Former St Patrick's boss Brian Kerr, meanwhile, has named a 28-strong panel of under-16 players for this month's friendly games against Denmark and Scotland.

The Irish, who are preparing for the European finals in Israel at the end of the season will play Denmark in Buckley Park, the Scots at Oriel Park and then the Danes again at Belfield on successive evening between February 15th and 17th.