Shepperd saves Dundalk late on

St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Dundalk 0

There was plenty of endeavour from both teams at Richmond Park on Friday night, but St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk had to settle for a draw.

Facing St Patrick’s for the first time since his off-season departure from the club, Dundalk boss Stephen O’Donnell kept faith with the same starting 11 that defeated UCD 2-0 seven days earlier.

Tim Clancy’s men had much the better of the opening exchanges. Darragh Burns and Billy King were marginally off target, while Ronan Coughlan was also close to breaking the deadlock. However, the hosts suffered a blow when midfielder Adam Murphy – making a first league start on his 17th birthday – was withdrawn through injury, and this coincided with Dundalk growing into the game.

Former St Pat’s player Robbie Benson and Patrick Hoban had headers that just cleared the woodwork, and the visitors had reason to feel optimistic heading into the second half.

Republic of Ireland Under-21 international Burns proved particularly threatening for St Pat’s down the right-flank. His lofted ball into the box on 63 minutes was met powerfully by the head of Eoin Doyle, but Dundalk goalkeeper Nathan Shepperd superbly tipped the ball over the bar. Moving into the final-quarter, Shepperd again thwarted Doyle with another spectacular close-range stop off a Burns delivery.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; Abankwah, Redmond, Grivosti, Breslin; O’Reilly, Murphy (McClelland, 24 mins); Burns, Coughlan (M Doyle, 64 mins), King (Owolabi, 84 mins); E Doyle.

DUNDALK: Shepperd; Macari, Connolly, Boyle, Leahy; Sloggett (Ward, 77 mins), Doyle (Williams, 46 mins), Benson; Bradley (Adams, 69 mins), Hoban (McMillan, 90 mins), Kelly.

Referee: R Harvey (Dublin).