St Patrick's Athletic, as expected, remained on course for a European place after this facile win over already relegated Kilkenny City at Richmond Park yesterday.

If Pat Dolan's side win their remaining game at Bray next weekend they will be guaranteed at least the InterToto Cup place.

St Patrick's signalled their intent by playing a 4-3-3 line-up with Michael Holt starting up front alongside Liam Kelly and Ger McCarthy.

And it paid dividends almost immediately against a porous Kilkenny defence; Martin Russell's first corner of the game bringing a goal inside three minutes.

Darragh Maguire got a firm, goalbound header to the cross and Liam Kelly reacted well in front of goal to flick the ball into the net for his 13th strike of the season.

St Patrick's should then have added three further goals over the next 10 minutes or so as Kilkenny were simply a mess at the back.

Stephen McGuinness brought a save out of Niall Hobbart while Michael Holt was guilty of two misses. His first was a complete miskick while Hobbart did well to save the second after great work by Ger McCarthy and Kelly.

The second goal didn't arrive until seven minutes into the second-half, Russell punishing a foul on him by David Mulcahy to score directly from a 25-yard free-kick.

Ger McCarthy added the third on 58 minutes when reacting well to get to McGuinness' header from another Russell corner and slam the ball home at the back post.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: S Kelly; Burke, S McGuinness, Burke, K Doyle; Osam, Griffin, Russell; McCarthy, L Kelly, Holt. Subs: Quinn for L Kelly (61 mins), Mbabazi for Russell (77 mins), Foley for Doyle (84 mins).

KILKENNY CITY: Hobbart; Brennan, Purdy, Mulcahy, Brunton; Tully, Johnson, A Murphy, O'Hanlon, Comerford; O'Byrne. Subs: Fennelly for Tully (85 mins), C Murphy for Comerford (88 mins).

Referee: J O'Neill (Waterford).