St Patrick’s Athletic 3
Bohemians 0
A MONDAY NIGHT of summer football on which Tunde rumbled and roared.
Tunde Owolabi’s hat-trick decided a hectic Dublin derby at Richmond Park, his first-half brace and second-half penalty applying a balm to Pat’s stuttering form.
Pat’s had lost both of their previous home games but tonight Owolabi struck at either end of the first-half, with his team-mates absorbing waves of Bohs’ pressure in between. Owolabi scored a hat-trick against Pat’s for Finn Harps last season, but tonight he did it for them, crowning his performance with a 68th-minute penalty.
The game fizzed and popped with energy from the off, and after only four minutes Ciarán Kelly was tasked with a rudimentary Sam Curtis ball up the touchline but failed, slipping to allow Owolabi to pilfer the ball, bear down on goal and rifle the ball beyond James Talbot.
The finish was a rare instance of a player keeping their composure amid the game’s frantic energy. Players from both sides flew thunderously into tackles; sometimes giving the ball away to win it back again.
Bohs looked to Dawson Devoy to ice their veins, the Irish U21 international playing further forward in a traditional Number 10 role to knit his side’s attacks together. It was from Devoy’s corner that Jordan Flores came agonisingly close to diverting into the net, missing the ball by inches at the back post. Devoy was terrific but not flawless, shooting tamely over the bar rather than playing through for either Omochere or Junior on a Bohs counter-attack.
Meanwhile, Pat’s goalkeeper Joseph Anang was quickening the blood of the Bohs’ fans corralled behind him, taking his sweet time over goal kicks and restarts. He then went about frustrating those in front of him with a string of saves during a Bohs’ onslaught. Devoy saw a shot from the edge of the box loop up onto the crossbar, with Anang throwing himself to his left to claw away Kelly’s headed rebound. The ball then broke to Jordan Doherty, who saw his snapshot pushed around the post by Anang.
James Talbot was soon leading recriminations at the other end, as Bohs’ idle marking at a set piece went unpunished when Eoin Doyle skewed the ball over the crossbar from a couple of yards out.
The game’s momentum swung with the squandered moment, and Talbot was soon forced into action to deny Owolabi in the six-yard box after a slick passing move involving Jason McLelland and Anto Breslin.
Owolabi wasn’t to be denied again in first-half stoppage time: taking the ball in space at the corner of the box before pinging the ball beyond Talbot and into the bottom left corner.
Bohs’ swapped Liam Burt for Ali Coote at half-time, and while they hogged much of the ball, they created little: Joe Redmond intervening to divert Burt’s long-range strike from danger. Pat’s looked more threatening on the counter and that’s how they killed the game at the midway point of the second half. 16-year-old Sam Curtis – outstanding at right wing-back – burst down the flank, exchanged passes with Owolabi before cutting the ball back for Eoin Doyle, who was adjudged to have been fouled by Kelly.
Owolabi was given the chance to complete his hat-trick, and made no mistake.
That goal broke Bohs’ spirit, and they grew more directionless as the game ebbed away, filled with passages of desultory passing and no clear-cut chances.
Liam Burt took the fight single-handedly in the final stages, seeing a shot roll narrowly wide of Anang’s post. But it had already been decided: this was Tunde’s night.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Sam Curtis; Joe Redmond, Tom Grivosti, Ian Bermingham (captain); Anto Breslin; Chris Forrester (Mark Doyle, 70′), Adam O’Reilly, Jason McLelland (Darragh Burns, 82′); Eoin Doyle (Ben McCormack, 75′) Tunde Owolabi (Kyle Robinson, 70′)
Bohemians: James Talbot; Max Murphy, Jordan Doherty, Ciarán Kelly, Tyreke Wilson; Conor Levingston (captain) (Jamie Mullins, 63′), Ali Coote (Liam Burt, HT), Jordan Flores (James McManus, 80′); Ali Coote, Dawson Devoy, Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe, Promise Omochere (Ryan Cassidy, 80′)
Referee: Neil Doyle
Attendance: 3,473