St Patrick’s Athletic 0
Sligo Rovers 0
ST PATRICK’ S ATHELTIC and Sligo Rovers played out a scoreless draw in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division at Richmond Park tonight.
Sligo’s goalless streak continues as they have not scored in four games after tonight’s draw but both sides will be wondering how they didn’t find the net in an open game.
It was the Saints’ first league outing for three weeks after they were involved in both cups and Friday night’s game against Finn Harps was called off.
The home side’s freshness was evident as they controlled the early possession but in an even first half, both teams had chances to break the deadlock. Darren Dennehy should’ve done better when he was found free in the area by his brother Billy from an in swinging free-kick from the right, but the big central defender failed to make a connection.
Brendan Clarke clawed a Kieran Sadlier corner from underneath his crossbar soon after and then Sadlier went even closer as his powerful shot from 18 yards looked destined for the bottom corner until it was stopped on the line by Sean Hoare.
Billy Dennehy then nearly gave Pat’s the lead midway through the half when he was spotted in space by Graham Kelly down the inside left channel but his chip went just over.
With Micheal Schlingermann ruled out for the rest of the season, Ciaran Nugent continued in goal for Sligo and he almost gifted the hosts the opener on the half-hour mark when he rushed out of goal only to find Conan Byrne with his clearance, but with the goalkeeper off his line, the Pat’s winger blazed over.
Sligo responded when Sadlier got in behind Ian Bermingham after some neat interchanges to pull back to the on-rushing Pat McCann, who snatched at it with his weaker left foot and saw his effort go wide.
Brendan Clarke made a finger-tip save moments into the second period as Sadlier tried his luck again after he cut back inside on the left to strike a bullet effort on target.
The Bit O’Red were looking most likely to score and Liam Martin created an opening for himself after he was almost brought down in the area but he stayed on his feet to shoot over when he ought to have done better.
The tit-for-tat narrative of the game continued though when Bermingham broke into the box to drive a low strike just wide of the post while substitute Raffaele Cretaro saw his goalbound effort just deflected over for Rovers.
Kelly then had two great chances to get the winner for Pat’s. Achille Campion inadvertently found him with a short back-pass but the midfielder smashed his effort well over when bearing down on goal, and at the death he found himself one-on-one with Nugent again but the Sligo stopper saved well with his feet to ensure a share of the spoils.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke; Ger O’Brien, Darren Dennehy (Michael Barker, 65), Sean Hoare, Ian Bermingham; Lee Desmond, Graham Kelly, Billy Dennehy (Mark Timlin, 80), Conan Byrne, Jamie McGrath; Christy Fagan (Rory Feely, 65).
Sligo Rovers: Ciaran Nugent; Tobi Adebayo-Rowling, Gavin Peers (Raffaele Cretaro, 68), Michael Leahy, Jimmy Keohane; Kieran Sadlier, Gary Boylan (Regan Donelon, 56), Pat McCann, Craig Roddan, Liam Martin; Achille Campion.
Referee: Graham Kelly.