Dundalk v St Patrick's Athl. — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Premier Division · Monday, 6 April 2026. Final score 2–0 (half-time 2–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 45% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals45%55%Under
Over 3.5 goals24%76%no pick
Both teams to score51%49%Yes

The result model puts Dundalk at 40%, the draw at 30% and St Patrick's Athl. at 30%, from expected goals of 1.16 and 0.96.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Premier Division has produced over 2.5 goals in 46% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Dundalk have 5 in 9 this season (1 of 3 at home), St Patrick's Athl. 4 in 9 (1 of 4 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 49% and 46%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 9 and 9 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 49% and 43%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 46%.

Head to head. These sides have met 8 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 63%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 47%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 36%, from expected goals of 1.16 for Dundalk and 0.96 for St Patrick's Athl.. Folding in 30% of that view gives 43%.

Calibration. Tested against 97,729 past matches, our ratings below 55% have run consistently too pessimistic — a figure in the high 30s, for instance, has come in about four points higher. So ratings in that range are lifted part-way back, giving 45%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Dundalk956%56%67%
St Patrick's Athl.944%44%33%

Head to head

27 Feb 26St Patrick's Athl. 4–0 DundalkO2.5
5 Sept 24Dundalk 1–2 St Patrick's Athl.O2.5
3 Jun 24St Patrick's Athl. 2–3 DundalkO2.5
12 Apr 24Dundalk 0–0 St Patrick's Athl.U2.5
8 Mar 24St Patrick's Athl. 1–0 DundalkU2.5
22 Sept 23St Patrick's Athl. 3–1 DundalkO2.5

More: Dundalk season stats · St Patrick's Athl. season stats · Premier Division table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.