Dolan off to winning start

FOR a match that for so long scarcely resembled a cup tie at all, it certainly provided some late heart stopping moments for the St Patrick's Athletic faithful.

Eddie Gormley exorcised the ghost of his cup final replay penalty failure last season with the winning strike while, ultimately, Pat Dolan's managerial reign got off to a winning start, but only just.

Athlone's young winger, Tommy Hewitt, deserved to bring this tie into extra time when twice hitting the St Patrick's crossbar with stunning long range shots inside the last 15 minutes.

Dolan made three changes from Brian Kerr's last game in charge.

Goalkeeper Brian McKenna returned as did Gormley, for his first start in eight weeks. Martin Reilly overcame a virus to play wide in a five man midfield with Ricky O'Flaherty up front.

Keith Long, with one of his powerful right footed free kicks which scraped the crossbar after eight minutes, appeared to set the atone for a dominant St Patrick's performance, but it was far from that as they generally struggled to overpower an Athlone side that had their moments.

Paul Osam headed onto the roof of the net from Paul Campbell's deep cross from the right on 16 minutes as St Patrick's continued to find the range. O'Flaherty then wasted a glorious chance when played in by Paul Hall's misheader from John McDonnell's ball forward on 29 minutes. John Connolly, a cup winner with Bohemians five years ago, spread himself well to save O'Flaherty poorly hit shot.

The first corner of a match which muted the 1,258 attendance for long spells, didn't arrive until the 34th minute, but, typically, might have brought a St Patrick's goal Osam again getting a header to Gormley's inswinger, with Martin McDonnell clearing after it came back off the bar.

The game finally sprung to life with Gormley's match winning goal on 61 minutes. Ray Carolan's long ball from the left flank was knocked down by Reilly and Gormley held off Barry Murphy to shoot past Connolly with this favoured left foot from 15 yards.