Cork City have been installed as commanding favourites with BOYLE Sports to pick up where they left off as the SSE Airtricity Men's First Division roars back to life this Friday night following the mid-season break.
Barry Robson 's table toppers make the trip to the sunny south east to face Wexford at Ferrycarrig Park (7:45 pm), fresh from a run of five successive wins, the latest of those a 4-0 demolition of Finn Harps before the league paused for the summer.
Rebel Army backed to march on at Ferrycarrig
Wexford vs Cork City
Bidding to tighten their grip on the title race, the Leesiders boast the longest unbeaten run in the division this season at 11 matches, with talisman Sean Maguire leading the league's scoring charts on eight goals and a star-studded front line featuring Ruairí Keating and Hans Mpongo firing on all cylinders.
The Rebel Army are priced at a red-hot 4/5 to leave Wexford with all three points, and the omens are ominous for Stephen Elliott 's hosts, who were on the wrong end of a 4-1 hammering when the sides last met at Ferrycarrig Park back in February. The Slaneysiders are rated a 3/1 shot to spring a surprise and blow the promotion race wide open.
Best of the Rest
The Playoff Battle Continues
Elsewhere on Friday night, Kerry will be desperate to halt a miserable run of seven games without a win when Athlone Town come to town, while Treaty United welcome a Bray Wanderers side to the Markets Field who have rediscovered their scoring touch after a rotten spell of their own, with Ben McCormack among the division's leading marksmen and the Seagulls having plundered five against Cobh and four away to UCD in recent outings.
In Donegal, a struggling Finn Harps outfit face a daunting task against a free-scoring UCD side who have quietly emerged as genuine promotion contenders, with Ciaran Behan and Hugh Smith sharing the goals around for the Students.
The weekend's action wraps up at Bishopsgate on Saturday night, where Longford Town lie in wait for a Cobh Ramblers side spearheaded by the in-form Dylan McGlade , who hit four in one afternoon against Treaty earlier this season.
All of this weekend's First Division action can be streamed live on LOITV .
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Bill is as passionate about Irish football as they come, with an agonising longing to see his country grace a World Cup stage. A League of Ireland devotee and lifelong Man United fan, he knows better than most what sporting heartbreak feels like, and brings that perspective to the BOYLE Sports Blog. With roots in greyhound racing and a curiosity spanning politics, snooker, WWE and beyond, there is rarely a sporting conversation he cannot add to.
