Generous St Patrick's sneak draw

St Patrick's Ath ... 3 Glentoran ... 3:HAVING HAD to come from behind to beat Sligo on Friday, it seems they're intent on making life hard on themselves up at Inchicore this season. Last night it took two very late goals by the home side this time just to secure a share of the spoils.

In patches, the Dubliners produced the game's best football, but ultimately they failed to impose themselves over the 90 minutes and gifted their visitors all three of their goals.

Mistakes by Joe O'Cearuill and Barry Ryan led to the first and third goals respectively, while David Partridge's clumsy challenge on Gary Hamilton yielded the penalty for the second.

What John McDonnell will prefer to take from the game, however, is the tremendous spirit displayed during a frantic five-minute closing spell.

With the travelling supporters' celebrations already in full swing from the time Daryl Fordyce put them 3-1 in front, St Patrick's dug deep and pushed relentlessly until goals from Gary O'Neill and - four minutes into stoppage-time - Keith Fahey got them their draw.

It was an edge-of-the-seat ending to a game that had provided excitement in fits and starts.

Michael Halliday had given the northerners the lead, but it was O'Cearuill's failure to deal with a straightforward ball that allowed him to push past Barry Ryan and sidefoot into an empty net.

When Bobby Ryan slipped in possession 10 minutes later it might have been two-nil, but this time the goalkeeper did well to save Gary Hamilton's shot.

The home side then began to find their feet and the rest of the half was fairly open and even stuff.

By the break the Dubliners were also level. The locals felt Garry O'Neill had been rewarded for terrier-like persistence inside the Glentoran box after a neat exchange of passes with Bobby Ryan, while the visitors were adamant he had simply kicked the ball from their goalkeeper's hands.

For St Patrick's, Mark Quigley had looked the most likely scorer prior to O'Neill's equaliser, but the striker drifted out of things in the second half. When a poor clearance by Elliot Morris left him in position to engineer a second just over an hour in, his first touch abandoned him.

By this stage the game, hampered by the wind and rain, was beginning to lose its shape.

That changed, though, when Kyle Neill took off down the left flank and pulled back a low cross to the edge of the area. There, Hamilton neatly sidestepped Partridge who more or less wrestled the striker to the ground. Up stepped Colin Nixon to send Ryan the wrong way from the spot.

When Ryan then punched low and into the path of Daryl Fordyce, who calmly took advantage of the present, the game looked done and dusted.

But McDonnell's men were far from finished and a good many of their supporters had already left by the time O'Neill headed his second, and Fahey grabbed the equaliser by coolly slotting home from beyond the far post.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Ryan; Brennan, O'Cearuill, Harris, Partridge; Guy, Fahey, Dempsey (Byrne, 80 mins), Ryan (Kirby, 87 mins); M Quigley (Keane, 69 mins), O'Neill.

GLENTORAN:Morris; Nixon, Leeman, Ward, Hill; Boyce (McGovern, 87 mins), Fordyce (Fitzgerald, 88 mins), McCabe, Neill; Halliday, Hamilton.

Referee:C Burns (Antrim).