Galway United 1
St Patrick’s Athletic 1
GAVIN PEERS WAS inspirational but the pressure intensified on Galway United manager Shane Keegan as St Patrick’s Athletic left Eamonn Deacy Park with a point.
It could have been worse had Ronan Murray not slotted a late Galway penalty but they are the only team in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division without a win and survival is already looking a tall order.
They came into this game knowing that even victory would not take them off the foot of the table and their fourth draw does little to aid their cause.
St Pat’s had won three in a row between the league and cup before last weekend’s 2-0 defeat against Limerick but they led 1-0 at half-time.
The Inchicore outfit were dominant in the first-half and had Kurtis Byrne had a 16th-minute goal disallowed.
But that didn’t deter the visitors and they pushed for the lead goal with Gavin Peers going close with a header from a corner.
Galway didn’t heed the warning signals and Rory Feely powered home his header five minutes before the interval.
St Pat’s were 1-0 up at half-time and they had a few chances to seal the win in the second-half, but they couldn’t convert their opportunities.
And then Galway came with a late surge – they went close on a number of occasions before Gavin Holohan was bundled over by Patrick Cregg in the penalty area – Murray did the rest.
Galway United: Conor Winn; Colm Horgan, Stephen Folan, Lee Grace; Gary Shanahan, Alex Byrne (Gavin Holohan 65), Conor Melody (Kevin Devaney 74), David Cawley, Marc Ludden; Ronan Murray, Jesse Devers (Vinny Faherty 42).
St Patrick’s Athletic: Conor O’Malley; Ian Bermingham, Rory Feely, Gavin Peers, Graham Kelly; Billy Dennehy, Alex O’Hanlon, Lee Desmond, Patrick Cregg, Conan Byrne (Josh O’Hanlon 79); Kurtis Byrne.
Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin).
