St Patrick’s Athletic 3
Sligo Rovers 0
AARON GREENE’S DOUBLE, along with a trademark Chris Forrester strike, ensured St Patrick’s Athletic returned to winning ways tonight, equalling their best league result of the season so far.
Pat’s had not lost to Sligo in their last eight league meetings at Richmond Park, and Conan Byrne really should have had them ahead after seven minutes, but he headed Greene’s cross straight at Richard Brush.
Greene has formed a productive partnership with Ian Bermingham in recent weeks on the left side, and when the defender delivered for the former Sligo man after 18 minutes, he delicately directed the ball into the far corner.
The Inchicore men, as has been the case in several of their games so far this season, continued to create chances, with Killian Brennan, Byrne and Ciaran Kilduff all going close.
But the second goal would not come and they were almost undone just after the half hour mark when David Cawley’s shot from the edge of the box had to be tipped onto the crossbar by Conor O’Malley.
Sligo had offered little in the way of attacking up until that point, and in the second half only a tame strike from Danny Ledwith threatened the Pat’s goal before Greene bagged his second of the night.
He overlapped Bermingham at a ferocious pace to run on to Forrester’s pass before rifling the ball across Brush and into the bottom corner for his fourth league goal of the season.
Owen Heary introduced Rafael Cretaro after that in an attempt to inject some kind of life into his attack, but nothing changed, and when Forrester broke for goal with four minutes left to play, he secured the three points with a classy strike from just out side the box.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Conor O’Malley, Ger O’Brien (Conor McCormack, 74), Ian Bermingham, Sean Hoare, Greg Bolger, Conan Byrne, Ciaran Kilduff, Killian Brennan (James Chambers, 70), Kenny Browne (Lee Desmond, 86), Chris Forrester, Aaron Greene.
SLIGO ROVERS: Richard Brush, Alan Keane, Danny Ledwith (Rafael Cretaro, 61), Stephen Folan, David Cawley, Sander Puri, Gary Boylan, Jake Dykes, Keith Ward (Gary Armstrong, 61), Morten Nielsen, Steven Beatie.
Man-of-the-Match: Aaron Greene
Referee: Paul Tuite