St. Patrick’s Athletic 0
Dundalk 2
Harry Manning reports from Richmond Park
A WONDER FREE-KICK from Michael Duffy helped Dundalk overpower St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
Duffy’s unstoppable dead-ball drive was followed up by a second-half David McMillan finish in a routine Dundalk victory which sees St Pat’s drop to the bottom of the table.
The game was well-balanced up until the 20th minute when McMillan was bundled over 25 yards from goal by Gavin Peers. Duffy stepped up and curled a sublime shot over the wall and into the top left corner.
Inspired by Duffy’s sensational finish, the Lilywhites began to take full control and just after the half-hour mark came close to doubling their advantage with two glorious chances.
Jamie McGrath arrowed a ball into the path of Patrick McEleney who showed tremendous feet to jinx by three Pats defenders before being denied by a solid Conor O’Malley stop.
Duffy then retrieved the ball on the right flank before picking out Stephen O’Donnell inside the penalty area, however, the Dundalk skipper saw his shot magnificently saved by the in-form O’Malley.
10 minutes into the restart McEleney hooked onto a ball just outside the area. He played a neat one-two with McGrath before bending a shot inches past the post in the first real chance of the second-half.
On 68 minutes, McEleney played a ball into McMillan who showed tremendous guile to turn his man before picking out the bottom-left corner via O’Malley’s fingertips.
8 minutes from time, The Saints almost clawed one back when Darragh Markey latched onto a floating ball before rifling a shot on target. However, Gary Rogers was quick to dive low and make the superb stop.
The win sees Dundalk extend their lead over third-placed Bray Wanderers to four points while St Pat’s fall from 9th to last having now only picked up one win in their last 10 league outings.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Conor O’Malley; Michael Barker, Rory Feely, Gavin Peers, Ian Bermingham (c); Patrick Cregg (Graham Kelly, 65), Lee Desmond (Alex O’Hanlon, 74), Darragh Markey; Kurtis Byrne (Conan Byrne, 80), Christy Fagan, J.J Lunney
Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Sean Gannon, Patrick Barrett, Niclas Vemmelund, Dane Massey; Stephen O’Donnell (Robbie Benson, 51), Chris Shields Patrick McEleney; Michael Duffy (Conor Clifford, 87), Jamie McGrath; David McMillan (Ciaran Kilduff, 84)
Referee: Sean Grant
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