Soccer

Ruairi Keating goal enough for St Patrick’s Athletic as Dundalk stay bottom

Shels beat Bohemians 2-0 in the northside derby at Dalymount Park thanks to late strikes from Will Jarvis and Shane Farrell

St. Patrick's Athletic's Ruairi Keating scores a goal. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Gavin Cummiskey at Richmond Park
Fri Mar 8 2024 - 22:14

St Patrick’s Athletic 1 Dundalk 0

[Keating 30]

Some statistics jump off the page. The winners of every League of Ireland title since 2018, Dundalk and Shamrock Rovers, are the only clubs without a victory this season.

Early days in 2024, but an oddity nonetheless. A perfectly normal stat is Ruairi Keating scoring this game’s only goal to secure all three points for St Patrick’s Athletic.

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But Dundalk went bottom of the Premier Division as their ex-striker Pat Hoban scored a hat-trick to put Derry City top of the pile alongside Shelbourne.

Shels beat Bohemians 2-0 in the northside derby at Dalymount Park thanks to late strikes from Will Jarvis and Shane Farrell.

Nobody from Kenosis Sports Group, St Pat’s new “strategic investors” were visible around Inchicore on Friday night. No Super Bowl bling as Joe Flacco is yet to sit among a healthy Dublin 8 crowd. Some 4,513 crammed into Richmond Park with Ireland’s technical adviser Brian Kerr the resident guest of honour.

The locals were getting antsy until Keating broke the deadlock on 30 minutes. His second goal of the campaign was well taken, eventually, as Ross Munro blocked his first effort after a Brandon Kavanagh pass.

Munro came into the Dundalk side following injury to George Shelvey. The former Nottingham Forest goalkeeper was removed at half-time last Monday with Dundalk trailing 4-0 to Sligo Rovers. Four other players were dropped by under pressure manager Stephen O’Donnell. It failed to steady the ship.

St Pat’s new investors sparked plenty of chatter around the club. Kenosis Capital, the parent company, was founded by Peter J O’Malley, an investment banker in 2012. In Christianity, kenosis is the moment Jesus Christ gave up his god-nature to become human.

The sports arm of the US firm has an interesting collection of investor-athletes, including Flacco’s former Baltimore Ravens team-mate Matt Birk, who is an active member of the Republican Party in Minnesota, a pro-life activist and vocally opposed to same-sex marriage.

The union between St Pat’s and Kenosis should be cemented by the friendly against MLS side Minnesota United in Saint Paul on April 20th.

Back on the domestic front, Dundalk midfielder Robbie Benson saw yellow for a hard challenge on Kieran Freeman just after the break. St Pat’s FAI Cup hero from 2021 was seemingly expressing the general frustration of O’Donnell’s squad.

Not that Pats were able to finish them off. With 16-year-old Mason Melia storming into the box, Keating mis-hit a 74th-minute chance.

It left them open to a sucker punch. James Gullan almost punished Jon Daly’s men but Luke Turner’s timely slide tackle helped to snap a three-match losing streak.

The relief was palpable around Richmond when referee ray Matthews blew for full-time in the 98th minute.

There is one more round of fixtures before the international break with St Pat’s hosting Shelbourne and Dundalk seeking salvation at Oriel Park against Waterford.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Rogers; Freeman, Redmond, Turner, Breslin; Lennon, Forrester; Kavanagh (Mulraney 70), Leavy (Nolan 87), McClelland (Melia 70); Keating (Kavanagh 87).

Dundalk: Munro; Davies, Boyle, Annesley (Mahon 84), Muller; Benson, High; McGuckian (O’Kane 70), Bradshaw (Durrant 60), Horgan (Oostenbrink 60); Gullan (Elliott 84).

Referee: Ray Matthews.

Other results:

Galway United 0 Drogheda United 0

Bohemians 0 Shelbourne 2

Derry City 3 Waterford 0

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey

Gavin Cummiskey is The Irish Times' Soccer Correspondent

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