{"id":496752,"date":"2026-06-12T22:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496752\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T22:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:08:08","slug":"ireland-newbie-leavy-helps-pats-past-drogheda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/496752\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland newbie Leavy helps Pat’s past Drogheda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kian Leavy capped his Republic of Ireland international debut last week with the goal that got St Patrick’s Athletic\u2019s title challenge back on track at Richmond Park.<\/p>\n

Ardee native Leavy became the first St Pat\u2019s player to be capped by Ireland since 1971 when coming on in the 1-1 draw with Canada<\/a> in Montreal.<\/p>\n

And the attacking midfielder found added glory back at club level with the lead strike here in another fine display in a Saints\u2019 shirt.<\/p>\n

Stephen Kenny\u2019s side had failed to score in their previous three games.<\/p>\n

But Zack Elbouzedi would add the gloss with a fine solo goal as they rediscovered their goal touch to make it a hat-trick of victories over Drogheda this season.<\/p>\n

The win lifted St Pat\u2019s back up to second in the table behind champions Shamrock Rovers, though with a game in hand.<\/p>\n

Without a win now in five games, Drogheda remain third bottom.<\/p>\n

St Pat\u2019s enjoyed plenty of possession from the off as they probed for openings, Elbouzedi shooting off target early on.<\/p>\n

Stout Drogheda defending then ensured that three successive corners denied Saints an effort on goal.<\/p>\n

A fifth corner from James Brown did find the head of Jamie Lennon, but the midfielder\u2019s header bounced wide.<\/p>\n

St Pat\u2019s were then incensed when Luke Turner was sent sprawling by Edwin Agbaje inside the area with no penalty forthcoming.<\/p>\n

But the home side\u2019s pressure finally told on 34 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Kian
\nLeavy enjoyed an excellent evening in Inchicore<\/p>\n

Lively ex-Drogheda right wing-back Brown was instrumental, working a one-two with Aidan Keena to race in behind to cross.<\/p>\n

Agbaje\u2019s attempted clearance ran straight to Leavy who drilled a left-footer to the net for his sixth goal of the season, his fourth against Drogheda.<\/p>\n

Keena fired wide before Edmondson should have doubled dominant Saints\u2019 lead in first half stoppage time instead of shooting straight at goalkeeper Fynn Talley.<\/p>\n

Leavy worked Talley again with a drive from distance early second half as St Pat\u2019s mined for more goals.<\/p>\n

And their second duly arrived on 61 minutes, though Drogheda were angered at being left down to 10 men as Conor Keeley waited well over two minutes to return following his having received treatment for an injury.<\/p>\n

The goal was all his own work by Elbouzedi. Cutting in from the left, he ghosted past several defenders before rifling a shot to the corner of the net from outside the area.<\/p>\n

Saints\u2019 keeper Danny Rogers, making his first league appearance in almost two years, had had precious little to do before making the save of the game on 67 minutes to tip over a Leo Burney header.<\/p>\n

Rogers was there again in stoppage time to push a Brandon Kavanagh free kick round a post.<\/p>\n

Prior to that, substitute Chris Forrester should have added a third goal for St Pat\u2019s on 85 minutes but his audacious chip lacked the pace to cross the line as Conor Kane got back to clear.<\/p>\n

St Patrick\u2019s Athletic: Danny Rogers; Joe Redmond, Sean Hoare, Luke Turner; Jamie Lennon (Chris Forrester 84); James Brown, Kian Leavy, Romal Palmer (Darragh Nugent 79), Zack Eldbouzedi (Anto Breslin 69); Aidan Keena (Barry Baggley 79), Ryan Edmondson (Max Mata 84).<\/p>\n

Drogheda United: Fynn Talley; Edwin Agbaje, Connor Keeley, Leo Burney; Shane Farrell, Ryan Brennan, Ethan O\u2019Brien (Jason Bucknor 66), Brandon Kavanagh, Kieran Cruise (Conor Kane 37); Jago Godden (Thomas Oluwa 66), Mark Doyle (Fuhad Kareem 88).<\/p>\n

Referee: Lucas Keating (Cork).<\/p>\n

Attendance: 4,166.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of the FIFA 2026 World Cup live on RT\u00c9 with highlights on RT\u00c9 Sport digital platforms and live blogs on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kian Leavy capped his Republic of Ireland international debut last week with the goal that got St Patrick’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-496752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}