GER NASH DIDN’T want to say it, but the Cork City boss didn’t have any other way of putting it.

“It’s not concentration, it’s duels. We were bullied at times. I don’t like to use that word but we were,” he said after his side’s 4-0 defeat away to St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park.

The result means the Leesiders could be relegated to the First Division this weekend should they lose away to Galway United on Friday and both Sligo Rovers and Waterford pick up at least a point.

The writing, though, is on the wall.

Cork were bullied and one of the chief protagonists was Mason Melia, who celebrated turning 18 yesterday by scoring a brace and taking his Premier Division tally for the season to 12.

He is within one goal of the league’s top scorer, Padraig Amond, but just as impressive as the goals was the manner of the performance.

For the first goal, he was alive and alert around the 18-yard box when Cork were the team in possession and looked to have things under control. Rather than switch off he forced his way onto a loose pass and earned his team the corner from which Joe Redmond headed home unmarked.

Melia’s first of the night, his team’s second, was a strong header at the back post while his second came in an almost identical position to a poor miss a matter of moments beforehand.

“I have been drilling it home to him, he is one who can get frustrated and you have to say, listen, all of the best strikers miss chances, it’s how you handle it, you get the next one, you can’t dwell on your disappointment, let it overtake your emotional state,” St Pat’s boss Stephen Kenny said.

“It’s important you eliminate that from your mindset and go again, score the next one and he did that. He always wants to score more and that’s a good thing.”

Melia missed a fair chunk of pre-season through injury and has been managing a groin issue throughout the campaign, and that played a part in the decision to substitute him when a hat-trick was there for the taking.

“Overall, if he was fully fit across the season, he’d have done a lot more damage. He has been terrific,” Kenny said.

The teenager has two games left at Richmond Park before he moves to Tottenham Hotspur in January. There is also the live possibility of signing off in November’s FAI Cup final at Aviva Stadium.

Pat’s play Cork in the semi-final in 10 days’ time and despite the Spurs move inching closer, Kenny has no doubts his young striker will continue to maintain his focus leading the line as they also aim to qualify for Europe through their league position.

“That speaks volumes for him, that’s a big thing, the deal [with Spurs] was done a year ago, he could easily be thinking about that continually and just minding himself, but that’s never been the case with him at all, not one iota of that.

“I haven’t seen any semblance of that at all and he deserves huge credit for that. His progress has been rapid, even since last year, there was a thing that he can’t lead the line on his own as he’s not ready to do that, he can play up front in a two or wider, we had to use him wide right for a good spell as he was growing and physically developing.

“In European games he played as the centre forward and excelled, I have no fears about now and in a year he has come on so quickly. What Tottenham have planned for him is outside my remit, what their pathway is for him, but he has shown a brilliant attitude and brilliant values.”