Joe Redmond and Chris Forrester scored stoppage time goals as St Patrick’s Athletic finally broke Sligo Rovers\u2019 dogged resolve at Richmond Park.<\/p>\n
The win, their seventh on the bounce against the Bit O\u2019Red in Inchicore, keeps Stephen Kenny\u2019s Saints on the coattails of leaders Shamrock Rovers, five points behind with a game in hand.<\/p>\n
As depleted Sligo\u2019s tenacious defending from no less than 14 corners looked like earning them a big point, skipper Redmond ghosted in at the far post in the 93rd minute to meet Sean Hoare\u2019s diagonal ball to head them in front.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, 17-year-old Sam Rooney threaded a sublime pass through for fellow sub Forrester who did the rest, cutting past Jeannot Esua before sweeping the ball to the net.<\/p>\n
Unchanged from last week\u2019s 2-0 win over Drogheda United, St Pat\u2019s chased another quick start.<\/p>\n
But, despite missing up to nine players, it was Sligo who started much the better and the visitors really should have been in front after five minutes.<\/p>\n
Esua did well on the right to cross for Daire Patton whose scuffed shot deflected out for a corner off Hoare.<\/p>\n
Patton almost made amends seven minutes later, curling a direct free kick not far wide of Danny Rogers\u2019 right-hand post.<\/p>\n
Will Fitzgerald then caused sluggish Saints a problem down the left when bustling past opposite skipper Redmond with Luke Turner hacking the cross out for another corner.<\/p>\n
Moments later Sligo were incensed when awarded just a corner after Fitzgerald\u2019s cross appeared to strike Redmond\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n
Having gradually played their way into the game, St Pat\u2019s threatened for the first time through ex-Sligo striker Aidan Keena who had a couple of shots blocked before heading over a James Brown corner.<\/p>\n
Strike partner Ryan Edmondson then just couldn\u2019t get enough on a superb cross from Zack Elbouzedi, glancing his header wide.<\/p>\n
A delightful through ball from Romal Palmer gave Edmondson another sight of goal on the half hour. However he never got hold of the shot as it bobbled off target.<\/p>\n
Yet another chance dropped to the Englishman whose shot was turned out for a corner off defender Gareth McElroy.<\/p>\n
In between, Sligo striker Mai Traore spun Hoare to work Rogers as the visitors finished the half as they started it with a couple of real chances.<\/p>\n
First Traore headed over Fitzgerald\u2019s cross before Rogers made the save of the half to push away McElroy\u2019s header.<\/p>\n
Showing more impetus and intent, St Pat\u2019s began the second half on the front foot, but they laboured in front of goal with Palmer twice shooting wide before some Kian Leavy brilliance deserved a goal on the hour mark.<\/p>\n
Running from deep inside his own half, the Ireland international ghosted past four opponents before striking the top of a post with a stunning left-foot drive.<\/p>\n
Saints were well on top now as they pressed for the elusive goal, Sergeant saving on the line from Palmer in a scramble from another Brown corner.<\/p>\n
Sergeant was then there to made the save of the night from an Edmondson header before the late, late drama brought St Pat\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
St Patrick\u2019s Athletic: Danny Rogers; Joe Redmond, Sean Hoare, Luke Turner (Anto Breslin, 83); Jamie Lennon; James Brown, Kian Leavy (Chris Forrester, 76), Romal Palmer (Max Mata, 76), Zack Eldbouzedi; Aidan Keena (Barry Baggley, 61), Ryan Edmondson (Samuel Rooney, 83).<\/p>\n
Sligo Rovers: Sam Sergeant; Jeannot Esua, Gareth McElroy, Sean Stewart (Kevin Zefi, 64), Kyle McDonagh; James McManus, Carl McHugh; Ryan O\u2019Kane (Alex Nolan, 77), Daire Patton (Conor Cannon, 77), Will Fitzgerald; Mai Traore (Cian Kavnaagh, 77).<\/p>\n
Referee: Paul Norton (Dublin).<\/p>\n
\n
Listen to the RT\u00c9 Soccer podcast on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Redmond and Chris Forrester scored stoppage time goals as St Patrick’s Athletic finally broke Sligo Rovers\u2019 dogged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-508792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508792","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=508792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}