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'The second half was a capitulation': Embarrassed Pat's vow to pick themselves up for derby

Dundalk smashed the Saints in Oriel Park last night.

IAN BERMINGHAM ADMITTED that St Pat’s capitulated as league leaders Dundalk gave them the Monday night blues with a 5-0 hammering.

But the Saints skipper promised that home fans will see ‘a different animal’ when they welcome Shamrock Rovers to Inchicore for Friday night’s Dublin derby.

Dundalk bounced back from their defeat against title rivals Cork to return to the top of the Premier Division table in style with five second-half goals.

And an embarrassed Bermingham pulled no punches in his assessment afterwards.

“The second half was a capitulation,” he said.

“It’s a very poor performance on our part and if we have another one of them, it doesn’t matter if we’re playing Bray who are bottom of the league, or Dundalk, we’ll get popped, and we did tonight.

“We have to go again on Friday and roll up our sleeves. I think you’ll see a different animal now on Friday.”

After a scoreless first half, Patrick Hoban struck twice in quick succession shortly after the restart to put Dundalk in the driving seat.

And Stephen Kenny’s side piled on the pain with Ronan Murray, Michael Duffy and Jamie McGrath completing the rout.

“Some of the goals we conceded were schoolboy stuff,” Bermingham said. “You can’t do that at this level, you’ll be punished.

“To be quite honest, it could have been more, and that’s the truth. We were way off it tonight.

“It’s a wake-up call for us all. We’ve got a big game against Rovers on Friday, a Dublin derby. We’ll have to make sure that we’re well up for it and we will be.”

The Hoops head into Friday’s clash on the back of a huge 3-0 win against champions Cork City last night.

Prior to that, Stephen Bradley’s men had picked up a dismal five points from the last 21 on offer on the league, but Bermingham knows that on their day, they have the class to punish teams.

“They went on a little bit of a bad run, which happens, but they’re a good side. We played against them, they’re a decent side, and they’ll give us a test on Friday.

“We have to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in. We know we’re a decent side when we do get the ball down and play but we were nowhere near it tonight.”

– Reporting by Caoimhin Reilly

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