THERE WAS NO celebratory hat-trick for Mason Melia on his 18th birthday but the St Patrick’s Athletic striker blew out the candle of hope for anyone at Cork City who retained faint belief of a great escape from relegation.
On a subdued, almost mournful kind of night in Dublin, Ger Nash’s side began a quiet descent back to the First Division.
It was not confirmed here with this 4-0 defeat but could be finalised by the end of the week.
When these sides meet again in the FAI Cup semi-final at Turner’s Cross on 3 October, Cork will require a drastic improvement to avoid their season being reduced to complete ignominy.
For Stephen Kenny, a route to Europe remains very much open through glory at Aviva Stadium but also in the league.
Melia celebrated the milestone birthday with a brace, sandwiched between an opener from Joe Redmond and a fourth from Kian Leavy, but didn’t get the opportunity for a treble as he was withdrawn as soon as the last of the goals were scored on 63 minutes.
With 12 for the season in the Premier Division, Melia is now just one behind overall top scorer Padraig Amond. It means there is a real possibility the 18-year-old says farewell to the League of Ireland and packs his golden boot in his bag when he heads for Tottenham Hotspur.
This was the Saints’ biggest win of the season and means they’re fourth, ahead of Drogheda United on goal difference, with five games to play.
Advertisement
Kenny must hope his side are building to a cresando in the final weeks of the season. For Cork, they appear to have fallen off a cliff.
When they returned to their dressing room at half-time, head coach Nash remained on the pitch with assistant David Meyler and goalkeeping coach Mark McNulty.
They were in deep dialogue, a mixture of anger and dismay etched across their faces. They probably would have stayed there for a bit longer had one of the small-sided games for children not kicked off around them.
It was apt, as the previous 45 minutes was schoolboy stuff from the away side. The first goal conceded on seven minutes saw Redmond power home a Simon Power corner unchallenged and unmarked seven yards out.
Darragh Crowley seemed to be the one responsible, facing the St Pat’s defender up as the corner was taken but being nowhere near Redmond when he made the connection
Melia marked that milestone birthday 11 minutes later, another header when Crowley was marking but was bullied by the teenager and unable to get himself side on to properly try to clear.
Cork had been cut open by a direct Power run from inside his own half, bursting down the right away from Bernardo Couto, checking back and then going back around the outside of the defender before firing his cross to the back post.
It wasn’t that Cork were rattled, they simply appeared to be in a slumber, happily sleepwalking towards the drop.
This performance seemed hard to countenance given they came into the game in relatively decent form – one defeat in five – and held vague ambitions of producing a stunning revival in the final month of the season to avoid automatic relegation.
Now their fate could be sealed by the time they face St Pat’s in the FAI Cup semi-final in a couple of weeks.
When Nash and his players did return for the second half they did so with three changes to the XI.
Alex Nolan and Kaedyn Kamara had both been booked so were withdrawn for Josh Fitzpatrick and Charlie Lyones, respectively, while Greg Bolger came in for Sean Murray.
Melia could have made it 3-0 on 56 minutes and ensured a hat-trick of assists for Power, only for his instinctive shot from close to zip over the crossbar.
It was almost too easy for Pat’s and maybe that explained why, only a few seconds later, Melia fired a flimsy effort off target when he had a clear sight of goal after Rory Feely was dispossessed.
But the teenager didn’t have to wait long to make amends, Cork again giving the ball away in their own half with Jamie Lennon’s first-time pass setting Melia free on goal.
This time he took one touch to set and went low under Conor Brann. On 62 minutes it was 4-0 when Cork again failed to clear their lines and Leavy was able to work the space from close range to find the net.
Whatever Nash said at half-time didn’t work, and in terms of the league there is not really much else to say.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Axel Sjoberg; Joe Redmond (captain), Tom Grivosti, Jason McClelland (Al-Amin Kazeem 67); Simon Power (Simon Power 67), Jamie Lennon (Darren Robinson 74), Jordon Garrick (Brandon Kavanagh 74), Barry Baggley, Kian Leavy; Mason Melia (Conor Carty 63).
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
6 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Mason Melia strikes twice on 18th birthday to send Cork City closer to relegation
St Patrick’s Athletic 4
Cork City 0
THERE WAS NO celebratory hat-trick for Mason Melia on his 18th birthday but the St Patrick’s Athletic striker blew out the candle of hope for anyone at Cork City who retained faint belief of a great escape from relegation.
On a subdued, almost mournful kind of night in Dublin, Ger Nash’s side began a quiet descent back to the First Division.
It was not confirmed here with this 4-0 defeat but could be finalised by the end of the week.
When these sides meet again in the FAI Cup semi-final at Turner’s Cross on 3 October, Cork will require a drastic improvement to avoid their season being reduced to complete ignominy.
For Stephen Kenny, a route to Europe remains very much open through glory at Aviva Stadium but also in the league.
Melia celebrated the milestone birthday with a brace, sandwiched between an opener from Joe Redmond and a fourth from Kian Leavy, but didn’t get the opportunity for a treble as he was withdrawn as soon as the last of the goals were scored on 63 minutes.
With 12 for the season in the Premier Division, Melia is now just one behind overall top scorer Padraig Amond. It means there is a real possibility the 18-year-old says farewell to the League of Ireland and packs his golden boot in his bag when he heads for Tottenham Hotspur.
This was the Saints’ biggest win of the season and means they’re fourth, ahead of Drogheda United on goal difference, with five games to play.
Kenny must hope his side are building to a cresando in the final weeks of the season. For Cork, they appear to have fallen off a cliff.
When they returned to their dressing room at half-time, head coach Nash remained on the pitch with assistant David Meyler and goalkeeping coach Mark McNulty.
They were in deep dialogue, a mixture of anger and dismay etched across their faces. They probably would have stayed there for a bit longer had one of the small-sided games for children not kicked off around them.
It was apt, as the previous 45 minutes was schoolboy stuff from the away side. The first goal conceded on seven minutes saw Redmond power home a Simon Power corner unchallenged and unmarked seven yards out.
Darragh Crowley seemed to be the one responsible, facing the St Pat’s defender up as the corner was taken but being nowhere near Redmond when he made the connection
Melia marked that milestone birthday 11 minutes later, another header when Crowley was marking but was bullied by the teenager and unable to get himself side on to properly try to clear.
Cork had been cut open by a direct Power run from inside his own half, bursting down the right away from Bernardo Couto, checking back and then going back around the outside of the defender before firing his cross to the back post.
It wasn’t that Cork were rattled, they simply appeared to be in a slumber, happily sleepwalking towards the drop.
This performance seemed hard to countenance given they came into the game in relatively decent form – one defeat in five – and held vague ambitions of producing a stunning revival in the final month of the season to avoid automatic relegation.
Now their fate could be sealed by the time they face St Pat’s in the FAI Cup semi-final in a couple of weeks.
When Nash and his players did return for the second half they did so with three changes to the XI.
Alex Nolan and Kaedyn Kamara had both been booked so were withdrawn for Josh Fitzpatrick and Charlie Lyones, respectively, while Greg Bolger came in for Sean Murray.
Melia could have made it 3-0 on 56 minutes and ensured a hat-trick of assists for Power, only for his instinctive shot from close to zip over the crossbar.
It was almost too easy for Pat’s and maybe that explained why, only a few seconds later, Melia fired a flimsy effort off target when he had a clear sight of goal after Rory Feely was dispossessed.
But the teenager didn’t have to wait long to make amends, Cork again giving the ball away in their own half with Jamie Lennon’s first-time pass setting Melia free on goal.
This time he took one touch to set and went low under Conor Brann. On 62 minutes it was 4-0 when Cork again failed to clear their lines and Leavy was able to work the space from close range to find the net.
Whatever Nash said at half-time didn’t work, and in terms of the league there is not really much else to say.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Axel Sjoberg; Joe Redmond (captain), Tom Grivosti, Jason McClelland (Al-Amin Kazeem 67); Simon Power (Simon Power 67), Jamie Lennon (Darren Robinson 74), Jordon Garrick (Brandon Kavanagh 74), Barry Baggley, Kian Leavy; Mason Melia (Conor Carty 63).
Cork City: Conor Brann; Darragh Crowley. Freddie Anderson, Rory Feely, Bernardo Couto; Alex Nolan (Josh Fitzpatrick HT), Sean Murray (Greg Bolger HT), Kaedyn Kamara (Charlie Lyons HT), Evan McLaughlin, Kitt Nelson (Matt Murray 63); Seani Maguire (captain) (Charlie Lutz 66).
Referee: Neil Doyle.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Cork City League of Ireland LOI Milestone Soccer St. Patrick's Athletic