Sligo Rovers 1 St Patrick's Athletic 2: JAMIE HARRIS was the hero for table-toppers St Patrick's Athletic at the Showgrounds last night with a clinical 82nd-minute headed goal after Sligo Rovers had levelled the match two minutes earlier. The Dublin club thus maintain their two-point lead over Bohemians at the top.
Conor O'Grady struck that equalising goal for home side, finishing off a well directed free from second-half substitute Seán Doherty.
St Patrick's Athletic started the game at a blistering pace but it was the hosts who came closest to opening the scoring when Anto Murphy had the visitors' defence scrambling to clear his dangerous close-range shot after 10 minutes of the game.
The Dublin team shaded the first-half exchanges with some skilful one-touch football but there was no clearcut shot at the home goal in spite of the probing of Gary Dempsey and Ryan Guy. St Patrick's had a let-off in the 39th minute when shots by Matthew Judge, Murphy and O'Grady were cleared off the line as the home side laid siege to the home goal.
The visitors took the lead on 65 minutes when Ryan Guy blasted the ball past Richard Brush from a Dempsey cross.
SLIGO ROVERS: Brush, Coleman, Ventre, Peers, McKenzie, O'Grady, Cash (Doherty 72), Murphy (Moore 72), Judge (Boco 55), Kudozovic, Cretaro.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan, Brennan, Byrne, Lynch, Kirby, Fahey, O'Neill (Fitzpatrick 66), Quigley (Ndo 66), Harris, Dempsey, Guy.
Referee: R Winters (Dublin).
