St Patrick’s Athletic secure second FAI Cup in three years in front of record crowd

Bohemians 1 [Afolabi pen, 9] St Patrick’s Athletic 3 [Doyle 23, Nowak og 48, Lonergan 87]

When a smattering of pitch invasions were contained and the smoke cleared, St Patrick’s Athletic were FAI Cup champions for the second time in three seasons.

A record final attendance of 43,881 bore witness to a game that Bohemians initially threatened to win at a canter. In the end, St Pat’s survived the early onslaught to stride clear with goals from Mark Doyle, a Krystian Nowak own goal and Tommy Lonergan’s late strike rubbing out Jonathan Afolabi’s early penalty.

Bohs should have been out of sight after a 50-minute first half. Time added on was due to fans from both clubs uniting in their disappointment at the fire marshal deeming flags and displays as flammable before kick-off. All were removed. The supporters at either end of the Aviva Stadium let their feelings known pre-match, and after the early goals by showering the pitch with flares. It caused sustained delays and impacted visibility. It was also a hazardous task for the fire brigade to remove burning debris.

So the contest began amid a cloud of red mist. Bohs kept their cool, settling into the task at hand with Joe Redmond needing to snuff out Afolabi’s first burst into the box. Redmond met Afolabi and all comers in a typically defiant display from the 23-year-old skipper.

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St Pat’s manager Jon Daly spoke about the cup final being “just another week” but his players were blessed not to be 3-1 behind at the turn, as they struggled to contain their Dublin rivals’ fluid counterattacks.

Within nine minutes, Afolabi dispatched his 20th goal of the season after former Bohs full back Anto Breslin was adjudged to have caught the striker’s ankle. With no VAR on duty, referee Paul McLaughlin pointed to the spot. Afolabi sent Dean Lyness the wrong way when finishing to the bottom left corner.

St Pat’s responded with Mark Doyle levelling the contest midway through the first half, from a glancing header in traffic created by Jake Mulraney delivering the first of his two assists from wide right. A lovely inswinging free-kick, straight off the training ground, Doyle outmuscled Bohs’ Polish duo, leaning on Bart Kukulowicz and backing into Nowak while finding the space to nod the ball beyond James Talbot.

Declan Devine’s men will regret not retaking the lead before the break. Sam Curtis, in perhaps his last match for Pat’s, rescued his team at the back post by denying Dylan Connolly’s low ball from finding Danny Grant, while James Clarke completely missed the target with a free shot.

It was all Bohs. St Pat’s English centre half David Norman made a high-risk, high-reward tackle on Connolly just before the winger could let fly.

“We got the lead and then for some strange reason we didn’t press as well as we should have pressed,” said Devine. “We missed [the injured] Keith Buckley, we missed his leadership.”

Up the other end, Chris Forrester had a look, skimming Talbot’s crossbar but Bohs were on course to end their 14-year trophy drought. That is, until they went for a rest and failed to wake up in time for the second half.

St Pat’s got a grip of this crackling occasion in the 47th minute and refused to let go. Again, Mulraney whipped a dangerous free to the back post where Nowak, under pressure from Redmond, poked the ball into his own net.

Suddenly the roles were reversed. Jordan Flores drew a save from Lyness and Redmond blocked Afolabi yet again, but Mulraney’s deep deliveries continued to stress the northsiders. Doyle was millimetres away from scoring his second headed goal.

With 20 minutes remaining the big Lansdowne pitch exacted its toll. Forrester, Mulraney and Grant were forced ashore while Doyle had already limped away, to be replaced by 16-year-old Mason Melia.

“I wasn’t going to make that change first,” revealed St Pat’s manager Jon Daly. “When Mark Doyle went down I was talking to Anto Breslin about what I was potentially going to do, as I thought it was a bit early for Mason. And Anto looked at me as if I had 10 heads, and said ‘No it’s not.’ I was like, ‘You are right, let’s do it. I was overthinking about the occasion and can a 16-year-old go on and deal with that. I thought Mason was excellent when he went on.”

A Flores free-kick into the Bohs end was just what the Phibsboro ultras ordered. The skipper hit the post as the Inchicore crowd began singing louder and louder.

Delirium ensued when Lonergan profited from calamity in the Bohs defence as John O’Sullivan and Flores made errors that invited the teenage sub to steady himself and finish past Talbot.

Cue ecstasy among the St Pat’s faithful and a mass exodus of Bohs people. Unbridled joy and misery, just blades of grass apart.

One last blow to Bohs’ misery is the cup final defeat gives Damien Duff’s Shelbourne the final Irish place in European football next season.

BOHEMIANS: Talbot; Kukulowicz, Nowak, Byrne, Flores; McDonnell (O’Sullivan, 85), McManus (Kirk, 52), Clarke; Connolly, Afolabi, Grant (Coote, 68).

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lyness; Curtis, Redmond, Norman, Breslin; Lennon, Forrester (Murphy, 68), Leavy (Nolan, 75); Doyle (Melia, 57), Carty (Lonergan, 75), Mulraney (McCelland, 68).

Referee: Paul McLaughlin.