Saints reignite title challenge with victory over Longford
Daire Walsh
St Patrick’s Athletic moved level on points with Shamrock Rovers at the top of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table courtesy of a 3-2 win against Longford Town at Richmond Park last night.
Billy King, Chris Forrester and Darragh Burns were all on target for the Inchicore men over the course of an eventful evening.
Dean Williams (on loan from Rovers) and Conor Davis found the target for the visitors, but the Saints held out for all three points.
This victory – their 15th of the campaign – added fresh life to the race for top-flight supremacy.
With the Hoops suffering a 2-1 away defeat to Finn Harps, Pat’s are only in second place due to their slightly inferior scoring average.
They may have two games more played than the champions, but Stephen O’Donnell’s charges are keeping up the pressure on their Metropolitan rivals.
Having been patient in their pursuit of an opening goal, Pat’s finally rattled the Longford net on 28 minutes.
Picking up possession well outside the penalty area, King unleashed an unstoppable strike that opposition netminder Lee Steacy was powerless to stop.
Although this was enough to separate the teams at the break, there was to be plenty of drama on the restart.
In his third loan spell away from Tallaght (he had temporary stints at Athlone Town and Bray Wanderers in the past), Williams is looking to leave an impression on the Longford faithful.
He certainly managed to do that in the 51st-minute of this game when he curled spectacularly beyond the reach of Barry Murphy from a free-kick.
This put the spotlight back on Pat’s, but their response was impressive.
Just shy of the third-quarter mark, Forrester fired home off a Jak Hickman cross to restore his side’s advantage.
The Saints continued to search for a third goal to finish the game off and it arrived with three minutes of normal time remaining.
Capitalising on excellent approach work from Paddy Barrett and Forrester, Burns applied the finishing touches to create substantial daylight between the sides.
Substitute Davis did add a second for the Midlanders deep into second half stoppage-time, but it was only a consolation in the end.