St Patrick’s Athletic 3
Limerick 1
THERE WERE EMOTIONAL scenes at Richmond Park tonight, as St Patrick’s Athletic remembered one of their own.
The funeral of the avid Saints fan, volunteer and U16s schoolboy manager Niall ‘Hano’ Hannigan took place last week and the club paid tribute to one of their most dedicated supporters before tonight’s Premier Division meeting with Limerick.
A banner was unveiled before kick-off, while all the Pat’s players were photographed with caps on as he was rarely seen without one on. There were also tributes paid in the match-day programme.
The FAI Cup champions had arranged a ‘Free Kilt Friday’ in an effort to entice a fraction of the Scottish fans attending tomorrow’s Euro 2016 qualifier to make the short trip to Inchicore, and sure enough, a small band of the Tartan Army were showed up.
On the pitch, Dean Clarke put the Blues, currently rock bottom of the table, in front with a low drive past his namesake Brendan on 24 minutes.
However, Liam Buckley’s side rallied in the second half and three goals in eight minutes — from Chris Forrester, Aaron Greene and Christy Fagan — ensured they picked up three points.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Brendan Clarke, Ger O’Brien, Sean Hoare, Jason McGuinness, Lee Desmond, James Chambers (Morgan Langley 77), Greg Bolger, Killian Brennan (Conor McCormack 46′), Chris Forrester (Jamie McGrath 84′), Aaron Greene, Christy Fagan.
LIMERICK: Conor O’Donnell, Jason Hughes (Tony Whitehead 77), Aidan Price, Robbie Williams, Shane Tracy, Ian Turner, Paul O’Conor, Shane Duggan, Darragh Rainsford (Vinney Faherty 63), Sean Russell, Dean Clarke (Ross Mann 85).
