St Patrick’s Athletic 1 Shelbourne 2
JJ Lunney’s 53rd-minute goal made all the difference at Richmond Park as Shelbourne claimed a deserved victory against Dublin rivals St Patrick’s Athletic.
St Pat’s recorded a 3-0 away victory against Shels on the opening day of the season, but found the Drumcondra men to be a much tougher proposition on this occasion.
After shifting the ball onto his left foot inside the penalty area after 20 minutes, Jack Moylan broke the deadlock with an unstoppable strike to the roof of the net. Although this looked like being enough to give the visitors the edge at the break, the Saints fired back deep into first half stoppage-time through Joe Redmond’s smooth close-range finish.
While St Pat’s were expected to push on after the resumption, the visitors had other ideas. Facing his former club, Lunney unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that took a wicked deflection on its way past opposition netminder Joseph Anang.
This piled the pressure on Tim Clancy’s men once again and even though substitute Jason McClelland forced a fine stop out of ex-Saints custodian Brendan Clarke, Shels convincingly earned their third league win on the bounce.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Anang; Curtis (Scott, 46 mins), Redmond, Grivosti (Bermingham, 46 mins), Breslin; O’Reilly, Forrester (Robinson, 83 mins), McCormack (McClelland, 60 mins); Burns, E Doyle, King (Owolabi, 60 mins).
Shelbourne: Clarke; O’Driscoll, Byrne, Griffin; Farrell, Lunney (Molloy, 67 mins), Dervin, Kane; Hakiki (Ledwidge, 73 mins); Boyd, Moylan (Anaebonam, 87 mins).
Referee: D MacGraith (Mayo).