St Patrick's have not given up title hopes

St Pats 2 Shamrock Rovers 1:IT MAY be hard to see Sligo Rovers being deprived of their first league title in 35 years, but St Patrick's Athletic have clearly not given up hope of stealing top spot from their rivals.

Having overtaken Drogheda United with this narrow win over last year’s champions, they are now best placed of the chasing pack, but still have six points to make up over five games, one of which involves a visit to the Showgrounds.

The home side came into the game looking for their fourth league win on the trot, but having led by two from the ninth minute when Colin Hawkins added an own goal to Seán O’Connor’s successful spot-kick, they had to hang on a little desperately through seven minutes of added time.

It had been an exciting game from the outset and, with their side winning, the locals seemed to be enjoying it. However, after Gary McCabe pulled one back spectacularly towards the end and Rovers piled forward in search of an equaliser, the home support made it abundantly clear that they had had their fill.

It was a decent fightback to be fair, from a side that looked dramatically better than the one that lost in Tallaght on Saturday. Ronan Finn was again the outstanding performer for his side, but it took a long time for most of those around him to get going after the shock of conceding two so early on.

The conditions clearly hadn’t helped in those early exchanges, but they scarcely conferred any particular advantage on the hosts who just seemed to cope better.

In truth, both sides struggled defensively, but the difference was that the locals took advantage of their opposition’s discomfort around their own area, although the scale of the protests when Neil Doyle awarded a penalty for handball after Seán O’Connor’s shot on the turn was deflected wide, suggested Colin Hawkins and co felt pretty hard done by.

O’Connor converted and then Hawkins somehow put the ball into his own net as he attempted to swipe at a low ball into the six-yard box by Jake Carroll. Craig Sives played his part in the setback too, having gifted the ball to Carroll seconds earlier.

Brian Laws men could easily, it seemed, have had a couple themselves when they broke forward, but the closest they came during the first half was when Sives flicked on a McCabe corner and Barry Murphy had to save from Ciaran Kilduff with his feet at the far post. St Patrick’s, indeed, might easily have made it 3-0 had Christy Fagan simply had a shot rather than laying it off, barely eight yards out, for an imaginary team-mate.

When Killian Brennan missed a 25-yard free five minutes after the break, it didn’t look like Rovers had what was required to make a match of it, but McCabe’s spectacular strike jolted them up a couple of gears.

A late free by McCabe was flicked on and Carroll unwittingly turned it against his own post before pushing the rebound wide.

It was nail-biting stuff by that stage and not, one suspects, just in Richmond Park.

Sligo will, of course, consider themselves favourites to capitalise on their lead during the weeks to come, but how it would have settled their nerves if their old rivals had grabbed something here.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Murphy; O’Brien, Kenna, Flynn, Bermingham; Chambers; O’Connor (Meenan, 65 mins), Bolger, Carroll, Kelly; Fagan (Faherty, 73 mins).

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Jansson; Gannon, Sives, Hawkins, O’Connor; O’Donnell (Greene, 62 mins), Brennan; McCabe, Finn, Dennehy; Kilduff.

Referee: N Doyle (Dublin).