Shamrock Rovers 0
St Patrick’s Athletic 2
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC left Tallaght Stadium victorious for the second time in five days tonight as they finally put some distance between Shamrock Rovers and themselves in the race for the final European spot.
The 2-0 win for Liam Buckley’s men also means they are now just two points behind Cork City who play Sligo Rovers tomorrow, and nine points off Dundalk who drew tonight against Longford.
It’s also the first time Pat Fenlon has suffered defeat in the league in Tallaght, and he would have been happy with how his side started tonight, despite them not creating a clear opening.
Pat’s, meanwhile, had the best chance of the first half when Killian Brennan struck the post from distance, and another long-range strike four minutes into the second half, this time from Chris Forrester, led to the opening goal.
Rovers’ Craig Hyland seemed to have it covered, but the goalkeeper failed to grip the ball as it fell from his arms and went between his legs.
Mikey Drennan was introduced immediately for the Hoops, and he had a couple of speculative efforts on Brendan Clarke’s goal before he raced through to fire just past the Pat’s post.
The striker was in again on 80 minutes, but could not beat Clarke and when Marty Waters saw red late on having only been introduced with 10 minutes left, Morgan Langley wrapped up the points in injury-time when he scored after Hyland had missed the ball out on the sideline.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Hyland, Madden, Kenna, Webster, Byrne, Cregg (Drennan, 52), McCabe, R Brennan, Miele, G Brennan G Brennan (Waters, 81), North (McCaffrey, 74).
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Clarke, O’Brien, Bermingham, Desmond, Browne (McGuinness, 92), K Brennan, Chambers, Forrester, Byrne (Bayly, 93), McGrath (Langley, 82), Greene.
Originally published Friday at 22.09
