St. Patrick’s Athletic 1
Shelbourne 0
Darryl Geraghty reports from Richmond Park
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC took bragging rights yet again over their old enemy Shelbourne, in what has become one of the more hotly-contested Dublin Derbies in recent times.
Jake Mulraney’s wonderful free kick ensured all three points stayed in Inchicore, making it three 1-0 wins for Pat’s over Damien Duff’s side this season.
But it was the visitors who started the brighter in a fast and frenetic opening period and could have been in front after just four minutes.
Sean Boyd did well to win the ball high up and saw it fall kindly to his strike partner Jack Moylan. The pacy front man then drove at the Pat’s defence and was desperately unlucky to see his curling effort miss the foot of the post by inches.
Sam Curtis, having this week collected his Republic of Ireland Men’s U18 player of the year award, proved why there is so much hype around him again with a strong performance against one of the league’s more physical front men in Boyd.
The visitors continued to flow forward. Andrew Quinn played a clever one-two with Boyd and the centre back continued his run before delivering a low cross to the front post where Moylan was close to tapping home.
Minutes later Jamie Lennon had the home fans off their seats with a stinging drive from 30 yards out that Conor Kearns eventually gathered at the second attempt. The hosts finished the half much stronger and somehow failed to take the lead after two almighty goalmouth scrambles. Anto Breslin delivered a deep cross to the back post, finding Jake Mulraney, who saw his header come back off the post. Ben McCormack looked to have an open goal on the follow up but saw his attempt blocked and cleared off the line by Gavin Molloy. From the resulting corner, Shels somehow managed to clear their lines as it remained scoreless at the break.
The second half continued in the same vein as the southside sun beamed down. Both sides, in typical derby fashion, flew into challenges as the tension rose.
Ten minutes into the second half the emotions spilled over when Sam Curtis tried to first stop a break from Mark Coyle, who had a kick back at him, before the young defender flew into a high challenge on Shane Griffin sparking a rumble in the middle of the park. A spate of yellow cards followed as referee Rob Hennessy did his best to calm things.
With 20 minutes remaining the hosts got themselves in front thanks to a wonderfully struck Mulraney free kick from 25 yard that flew into the top corner.
📽️ | WOW!
— League of Ireland (@LeagueofIreland) June 23, 2023
Jake Mulraney with a beautiful free-kick! 🎯
St. Patrick's Athletic 1-0 Shelbourne#PATSHE | #LOI pic.twitter.com/sqgiCVBjBJ
Pat’s now face a quick turnaround as they face a trip up to Dundalk on Monday, while Damien Duff’s charges have a week to prepare for a visit of title hopefuls Derry City.
St. Patrick’s Athletic: Dean Lyness, Jake Mulraney (Mark Doyle 81’), Noah Lewis, Harry Brockbank (Jay McGrath, 74’), Sam Curtis, Anto Breslin, Jamie Lennon, Adam Murphy, Ben McCormack (Jay McClelland, 65’), Chris Forrester, Conor Carty (Eoin Doyle, 74’)
Shelbourne FC: Conor Kearns, JR Wilson (Jad Hakiki, 75’), Andrew Quinn, Shane Griffin, Gavin Molloy, Tyreke Wilson (Shane Farrell, 61’), Mark Coyle (Gbemi Arubi, 81’), JJ Lunney, Evan Caffrey, Jack Moylan, Sean Boyd