Soccer

10-man St Patrick’s Athletic get back on title trail

Goals from Keith Fahey, Conan Byrne and Ian Bermingham seal win over UCD

Conan Byrne of St Patrick’s Athletic scores his side’s second goal against UCD last night. Photograph: Inpho
Conan Byrne of St Patrick’s Athletic scores his side’s second goal against UCD last night. Photograph: Inpho
Sat Aug 16 2014 - 01:00

St Patrick's Athletic 3 UCD 0 Goals from Keith Fahey, Conan Byrne and Ian Bermingham got St Patrick's Athletic title challenge back on track at Richmond Park. The defending champions finished with 10 men after Greg Bolger was shown a straight card for an apparent stamp on Colm Crowe.

Fahey had a contender for miss of the season on 17 minutes when he fired into the side-netting from inside the box.

St Patrick’s were dominant but were let down by poor finishing. A case in point was the finishing by Christy Fagan, who had two more chances before the break but missed the target.

Fahey sent St Patrick’s in one up at the break when he caught Crowe napping and he whipped the ball away, darted toward goal and finished well past O’Donnell.

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St Patrick’s found themselves reduced to 10 men on 57 minutes when Bolger was shown a red card by referee Robert Harvey for a tackle on Crowe with all studs showing.

Byrne scored their second goal on 69 minutes with a wonderful shot past O’Donnell into the far left corner following brilliant build up play from Fahey and Chris Forrester.

Bermingham netted the third on 77 minutes with a low drive from the left of the box that gave O’Donnell no chance before Hugh Douglas got one back for UCD 10 minutes later.

Robbie Benson’s brilliant free kick gave UCD hope in the third minute of added time, but there was just enough time for the restart.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Clarke; McCormack, Hoare, Foran, Bermingham; Byrne, Fahey, Bolger, Brennan (Greene 79 mins), Forrester (O'Brien 85 mins); Fagan (Fitzgerald 87 mins). UCD: O'Donnell; Douglas, Ryan, Kavanagh, Matthews (Ben Mohamed 64 mins); Mulhall (Cannon 74 mins), Creevy, Benson, Crowe (Molloy 64 mins), O'Halloran; Belhout. Referee: R Harvey (Dublin).