Sligo 1
St Pat’s 0
RAFFAELE CRETARO’S SECOND-HALF goal inflicted a fourth consecutive league defeat on St Patrick’s Athletic tonight.
The Saints were arguably the better side in the early stages of the game, but they had no answer to Cretaro’s goal after the interval.
Fresh from their European clash during the week, Liam Buckley’s Saints travelled to Sligo hoping to put an end to their poor run of form in the league.
It appeared from the off that they were eager to do that, as they took control of early proceedings, putting Sligo under pressure from the very start.
But Rovers managed to stay strong under pressure, and Schlingermann was barely troubled in the early exchanges.
It was the hosts who found themselves with the best chance of the opening half to take the lead.
Lacklustre defending from the Saints allowed Keohane to cross from the left untroubled, and Phil Roberts, Kieran Sadlier and Daniel Kearns were all allowed space to shoot at goal, with Pat’s making a goal-line clearance from the latter to keep their clean sheet intact.
Rovers started the second half confidently, and the introduction of Liam Martin for the injured Regan Donelon appeared to be working well, as the Donegal native began to cause problems for the visitors.
And Martin was the architect of Rovers’ opening goal, placing a neat ball into the feet of Cretaro on 49 minutes, with the 34-year-old beating Clarke to make it 1-0 to Dave Robertson’s men.
The Bit o’Red were handed a glorious opportunity to double their lead on 73, with the lively Cretaro nodding a Roddan cross towards Sadlier, but he failed to get his volley on target.
Cretaro continued to be the danger man, but his late strike from the right-hand side rose well above the mark — Clarke not troubled.
Pat’s continued to look for an equaliser, but they had to make do with half chances, as Schlingermann was not to be beaten.
Sligo Rovers: Micheal Schlingermann, Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Gavin Peers, Gary Boylan, Regan Donelon (Liam Martin, 22), Daniel Kearns (John Russell, 55), Jimmy Keohane, Craig Roddan, Kieran Sadlier, Phil Roberts,Raffaele Cretaro.
Subs: Ciaran Nugent, Chris Lyons, Michael Leahy, Mikey Place, Paul Doyle.
St. Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke, Michael Barker, Lee Desmond (Dinny Corcoran, 83), Darren Dennehy, Sean Hoare, Conan Byrne, Sam Verdon, David Cawley (Daragh Markey 75), Keith Treacy, Jamie McGrath (Mark Timlin, 79), Christy Fagan.
Subs: Pat Jennings, Ian Bermingham, Billy Dennehy, Rory Feely.
Referee: Neil Doyle
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