League of Ireland/St Patrick's Athletic 3 Bray Wanderers 1:Off the pitch things could scarcely be going much better these days up at Richmond Park where the return of Brian Kerr to St Patrick's Athletic and the promise of cash had combined to lift morale even before the season got properly under way.
On the pitch, the six wins and a draw secured before last night's visit of Eddie Gormley's Bray Wanderers had, of course, generated a little bit of excitement also.
If expectations have risen of late, though, then the home side proved once again here that they are well capable of stepping up a notch or two and delivering as required.
Sure enough, they won easily last night and if there could be any grumbling among the home fans as they drifted away at the final whistle then it could only have been prompted by the lack of any sense of real uncertainty regarding the outcome after Mark Quigley had run up a hat-trick within the opening nine minutes.
Bray Wanderers arrived having secured two wins from their first three league games with the pre-season title favourites Derry City the only side to beat them, so there was at least some prospect that a rampant St Patrick's team might be tested.
But the Inchicore outfit simply can't be stopped at the moment , a fact they underlined just four minutes in when they completely carved open the Wanderers defence to open up the scoring.
After a tap-in and a curling shot to the bottom corner had given Quigley his opening two goals, the 21-year-old rounded things off with a cheeky lob from the edge of the area that only served to compound the embarrassment of goalkeeper Steve Williams and his defenders.
At that stage the only question seemed to be how many the home side would go on to score which is understandable given their recent form.
St Patrick's scored just 32 goals in 30 league games last year, but Quigley's early strikes brought their tally for the eight league and Setanta Cup games they have played over the past few weeks to 22 with the young striker having already matched in those two competitions the six goals managed by last season's top scorers in the league alone.
As it turned out, the former youth international could have easily have gone better during the half hour that followed.
Surprisingly, though, he and his team-mates eased up on their visitors who, after a tactical reshuffle and a stern talking-to from the bench, regrouped sufficiently to get to half-time without conceding again.
Along the way they lost Colm Tresson to what appeared to be a hamstring injury, while their hosts had to replace Anto Murphy who limped off after taking a knock to his ankle. John McDonnell's side suffered another setback just short of an hour when John Frost was dismissed following a second booking and Bray took advantage when Alan Cawley beat Barry Ryan with a fine free-kick from the edge of the area.
The goal gave a little respectability to the scoreline without ever seriously suggesting that Bray Wanderers were capable of staging a real fightback. Though Bray did press for a second, the hosts repeatedly caught them on the break with Keith Fahey, Alan Kirby and Mark Rooney all going close to restoring the three-goal margin before Williams made his best save of the night at the feet of Joseph Ndo.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan; Foley, Brennan, Paisley; Murphy (Mulcahy, 19 mins), Fahey (Maguire, 70 mins), Kirby, Ndo, Frost; M Quigley, O'Neill (Rooney,76 mins).
BRAY WANDERERS: Williams; Derek Tyrrell, Delaney, Deans, Cronin (Georgescu, 73 mins); Gough (O'Shea, half-time), Tresson (Cawley, 33 mins), Duggan; Dunphy, Fox, David Tyrell.
Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)