O'Neill to the rescue

Shelbourne 1 St Patrick's 0Gary O'Neill came to Shelbourne's rescue with his fourth goal in as many games finally breaking St Patrick's resolve to keep the champions' hopes of snatching second place alive.

Defeat for St Patrick's, now without a win in 10 league games, keeps them in the danger zone.

With the pressure gradually mounting on the St Patrick's goal, O'Neill struck on 74 minutes. Collecting Dave Rogers' pass down the left, O'Neill's pace and guile forced him past Darragh Maguire, his low drive beating Barry Ryan at his near post.

O'Neill almost punished a Stephen Caffrey mistake nine minutes later, but Ryan did well to touch the shot out for a corner.

Ryan was there again to save St Patrick's as O'Neill's replacement Glen Crowe bore down on goal to shoot.

Missing six first team regulars through injury, suspension and ineligibility, St Patrick's packed midfield with Vinny Perth sitting in front of the back four and Glen Larsen up front on his own.

The tactic should have come unstuck as early as the second minute when Jason Byrne was allowed too much space to chest down Ollie Cahill's ball over the top. Redemption came in the guise of Byrne scuffing wide.

Thirteen minutes later, Richie Baker fed overlapping defender Rogers who ran on to force a good stop from Ryan.

Thereafter it proved a most frustrating half for Shelbourne who were having to work hard to get the ball and even harder to create anything when they had it.

While St Patrick's deserved credit for stopping them, there was a distinct lack of imagination in Shelbourne's play, their only other efforts on goal in the first half coming from a Baker header after a Bobby Ryan corner, and a long range shot from Stuart Byrne that deflected off Perth for their fourth corner of the night.

Defensively solid enough, St Patrick's had little or nothing to offer at the other end of the pitch, their only sniff of goal in the first half coming a minute before the break when Maguire hooked over the top after Michael Foley's corner wasn't cleared.

St Patrick's pushed Ian Maher up to partner Larsen in attack from the resumption and that opened things up for Shelbourne.

But Shelbourne continued to struggle to make chances, not really troubling Ryan until the 65th minute.

As with his chance early in the first half, Jason Byrne caught the St Patrick's defence square from Baker's sublime through ball. The low left-foot shot beat Ryan, but cannoned back off the post.

Saints' defender Stephen Caffrey then sliced an attempted clearance off the other post within two minutes as the pressure mounted.

SHELBOURNE: Delaney; Heary, Hawkins, Rogers, Cahill; Ryan, S. Byrne (Fleming, 81 mins.), Ndo, Baker (Chambers, 70 mins.); O'Neill (Crowe, 84 mins.), J. Byrne.

ST. PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan; Prenderville, Caffrey, Maguire (Quigley, 85 mins.), Frost; Perth (Doran, 79 mins.); Brennan, Donnelly (Dunne, 85 mins.), Maher, M. Foley; Larsen.

Referee: A. Kelly (Cork).