Revenge no time in coming

Sweet revenge and more for St Patrick's Athletic at Richmond Park last night. Goals from Marcus Hallows and Colin Hawkins helped bury the memories of their FAI Cup exit at the hands of the same opposition last Tuesday week, but perhaps more importantly, it moves the champions back into joint fourth on the table after what happened across town.

And to cap a most forgettable night for Galway United, Gareth Gorman handed St Patrick's a third goal when substitute Liam Kelly had sent in a rather wild cross into the area well into injury time for Gorman to direct into his own net.

St Patrick's opening goal came right on the half hour mark, even though it seemed a long time coming. Barry Prenderville started a driving move forward that saw Trevor Molloy ambitiously flick the ball, mid-air, with the outside of his foot. Ollie Neary miscalculated the approach in the Galway defence and knocked the ball on for Hallows, who took it down and blasted it over the advancing Eddie Hickey.

United could well have sneaked ahead just before that when Lavine jetted around two St Patrick's defenders and had the benefit of Trevor Wood's bad positioning in goal. Surprisingly, he misdirected his shot to send the ball back into play and spoil their best opportunity of the half.

After the restart, however, there was even more conviction about the way St Patrick's moved forward, and with a little more than two minutes gone Hawkins had put them two up. From Molloy's floating corner, he rose perfectly to direct the ball down into the net. Even if it took a couple of deflections before it went in, it certainly deserved to find the target.

United then stretched their attack and forced Packie Lynch into a little more defensive action as Gareth Gorman and Foley started to press deeper. When that failed to work, manager Don O'Riordan felt it was time to introduce Michael Donnellan and Aidan Cregg. Unfortunately neither made a whole lot of difference.

Donnellan failed to capitalise on whatever opportunities came his way around the goalmouth and unlike most of their recent outings, the United attack fell well short of even threatening a goal.

ST PATRICK'S: Wood; Lynch, McGuinness, Doyle, Prenderville; Russell, Gormley, Hawkins, Croly; Molloy, Hallows. Subs: Kelly for Molloy (75 mins).

GALWAY UNITED: Hickey; Neary, O'Connor, Morgan, Cleary; Dolan, Malee, Sheridan, Lavine; Foley, Gorman. Subs: Donnellan for O'Connor, Cregg for Malee (both 65 mins).

Referee: A O'Regan (Cork).