St Patricks Ath 5 Shamrock Rovers 1:AFTER A couple of drawn derbies on the trot, Liam Buckley's men seemed to conclude that enough was enough last night at Richmond Park where they emerged from a compelling game with a four-goal victory margin over the title favourites that would have seemed as unlikely beforehand as it looked richly deserved at the final whistle.
Buckley’s side were virtually unrecognisable to the side that virtually sleepwalked through the grim stalemate in Dalymount Park a couple of weeks back.
There, against far weaken opponents, the Inchicore outfit had appeared ready to settle for a draw until, too late, they recognised that they were capable of more.
This time out, they were more positive and vastly more passionate from the outset, riding their luck at the back sometimes so as to press forward at every opportunity and always looking as though they were intent on taking all three points.
They took their first step towards victory just four minutes in when Chris Forrester fired home a remarkable long-range goal after Killian Brennan had almost invited the right-sided midfielder inside onto his left foot which he may have assumed was slightly less lethal.
Prior to that, Rovers should have been in front with Gary Twigg having headed a Billy Dennehy free over when really he should have out the ball away. But far from being shaken by the let off, the locals looked utterly unfazed and the home support immediately began to sense that their players were, at the very least, going to give them something to get worked up about.
The next time Dennehy and Twigg combined – from a corner - the Scot hit the crossbar from close range but the hosts then got comfortably on top of things, winning the critically important battle in midfield where James Chambers anchored things impressively and their determination to pressure Rovers without let-up forced a succession of errors and yielded a good deal of possession.
Pat’s consistently looked dangerous on the break with Forrester a particular threat. The 19 -year-old only has a couple of seasons of what might be described as serious club football under his belt but Buckley predicted big things for him after this performance. It wasn’t hard to see why for he set up his side’s second with a deflected shot that ran nicely into the path of John Russell and then showed just how handsomely a little enterprise could pay off when he successfully chipped the Swedish keeper Jansson from the edge of the area as Rovers’ offside trap failed to work.
At that stage, a first league win over the champions in two years seemed all but assured.
However Ken Oman pulled one back for the visitors with a far-post header from another Dennehy corner on the stroke of half-time.
But St Patrick’s powered on after the break, always looking the more likely to get the game’s fifth the goal which they did (moments after Forrester had departed to a standing ovation) courtesy of Fagan who rounded Jansson and side-footed home after Russell had won possession and sent him clear from inside the centre circle.
As the local fans gleefully taunted their rivals, Fagan then got the fifth with a header from a yard or so out after the Rovers defence had disintegrated and a looping cross by Jake Kelly had left Jansson hopelessly stranded.
“We may have caught them on an off night but we played particularly well too,” said Buckley who spread the praise around beyond Forrester and Fagan.
Rovers boss Stephen Kenny, was more subdued. “It was a dreadful night for us really,” he said. “We couldn’t have envisaged coming here and conceding five but we were second best tonight.
It was an unacceptable performance and I’m not going to tolerate us losing like that.”
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Clarke; O’Brien, Kenna, Browne, Bermingham; Chambers (Rossiter, 88 mins); Forrester (D Kelly, 69 mins), Bolger, Russell, J Kelly; Fagan (O’Connor, 87 mins).
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Jansson; Gannon, Sives, Oman, Brennan (Powell, 84 mins); Turner (Kavanagh, 59 mins), Rice; Dennehy, Finn, Greene (McCabe, ht); Twigg.
Referee: A Buttimer (Cork).
