Galway United 1
St Patrick’s Athletic 4
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC ruthlessly brushed Galway United aside at Eamonn Deacy Park on Friday evening.
Conan Byrne’s double and goals from Killian Brennan and Ciaran Kilduff completed an impressive win on the road for Liam Buckley’s men.
After an edgy start Pats were awarded a penalty when Stephen Walsh handled a shot from Aaron Greene in the box and Brennan obliged from twelve yards to give the visitors the lead on 25 minutes.
Galway struggled in the opening half to create much as a sweeping move saw the Saints double their lead five minutes before the break when Brennan played in Conan Byrne and he rifled into the bottom corner.
After the restart United improved and marked their early intent when Sam Oji headed inches wide from a Ryan Connolly free-kick when it looked like it was heading for the bottom corner.
A minute later another Connolly free was cleared and broke to Dave O’Leary – who let fly from range to give Conor O’Malley no chance with the aid of a deflection to make it game on.
But Pats refused to be miffed by Galway’s mini-revival as James Chambers and Greene fired wide from close range before a Forrester ball opened up Galway’s defence and Kilduff dinked over the advancing Hanley to restore their two-goal lead.
Galway looked a beaten side at this point and 10 minutes from time Forrester was again creator for Byrne’s second who put the icing on the cake with a superb curling effort into the top corner.
Pats had their chances to make it five before salt was rubbed into Galway’s wounds with Alex Byrne seeing red for a poor tackle on Chambers bred out of pure frustration.
GALWAY UNITED: Ger Hanley; Colm Horgan, Sam Oji, Alex Byrne, Stephen Walsh; Gary Shanahan, Paul Sinnott (Antaine O’Laoi, 46), Ryan Connolly, David O’Leary (Padraic Cunningham, 71), Jake Keegan; Enda Curran.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Conor O’Malley; Ger O’Brien (James Chambers, 35), Lee Desmond, Kenny Browne, Ian Bermingham; Conan Byrne, Killian Brennan, Chris Forrester (Morgan Langley, 81), Greg Bolger (Conor McCormack, 75), Aaron Greene, Ciaran Kilduff.
Man-of-the-match: Conan Byrne
Referee: Jim McKell