St Patrick's Athletic - 4 Wayside Celtic - 1: With money as tight as it is up at Richmond Park these days the new St Patrick's Athletic youth policy may soon consist of nothing more complicated than "play 'em".
It is a worrying prospect for the Inchicore club, but last night the barely 1,000 supporters who turned out to see their team coast into the next round of this year's FAI Cup will, at least, have taken consolation from the fact that there are teenagers like Philip Sheppard who seem keen to make the most of any opportunity that might arise from the club's current adversity.
Sheppard and his partner in attack for the home side last night, Robbie Smith, are both 18, but the pair performed well together, with the former scoring goals in the 16th and 33rd minutes to put the locals firmly on course for victory after an early hiccup. And the latter worked tirelessly until replaced midway through the second half.
What had already been a terribly poor week for the Emmet Road outfit looked set, briefly, to get a whole lot worse when their Leinster League opponents took the lead 60 seconds into the contest. Kenny Simpson's corner from the left was decent enough, but quite how Wayne Callaghan, not exactly a towering giant, was allowed a virtually free header must have baffled manager John McDonnell.
The St Patrick's boss, of course, has been severely handicapped by the club's financial troubles. The team's most experienced striker, Tony Bird, has been sidelined since a falling out over unpaid wages a month ago and is expected to move on, probably to Drogheda in a week or so, while Joseph Ndo was rested last night after the basics of a deal that will take him to Shelbourne were worked out yesterday.
Slack marking for the goal aside, the home side's defence came out of things pretty well with Wayside proving incapable of threatening much around Chris Adamson's area.
Celtic's manager, Peter Lennon, had said before the game that he expected the professional players' superior fitness to tell, and from the early stages it did with the amateurs being constantly forced to chase things as their more experienced opponents pushed the ball.
Sheppard had a string of chances to complete his hat-trick but a poor finish, a good save by Robbie O'Dowd and a deflection prevented his three most memorable attempts.
Having set up one of Sheppard's goals with a sweetly timed through ball from the centre of midfield, Keith Dunne laid another on for Colm Foley who headed the floated free-kick in 18 minutes from time. That put an end to any lingering hint of a contest, but a quarter of an hour later O'Keeffe wrapped things up by rounding the goalkeeper to convert one of many late chances.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Adamson; Quigley, Foley, Maguire, Byrne; Dunne, Casey, Bell, O'Keeffe; Sheppard (Fitsimons, 90 mins), Smith (68 mins).
WAYSIDE CELTIC: O'Dowd; Lucre, Sharkey, Byrne (G Smith, half-time), Gill; Simpson (Robson, 80 mins), Callaghan, Hyland, O'Neill; Irwin (Dunne , 75 mins), G Smith.
Referee: D Hancock (Dublin).
