St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Sligo Rovers 1
Max Mata was the match winner at Richmond Park on Monday afternoon as Sligo Rovers recorded a slender victory over St Patrick’s Athletic.
Having lost out by the narrowest of margins (2-1) to defending champions Shamrock Rovers at the nearby Tallaght Stadium just three days earlier, John Russell’s visitors were hoping for greater joy on their latest trip to the capital.
Their goalscorer against the Hoops – Greg Bolger – was marked absent for this game, but New Zealand native Mata came up with the goods on 56 minutes to secure all three points for Sligo.
Pat’s were looking for a return to winning ways following a 2-0 defeat to Derry City last Friday, but breathed a sigh of relief when Sligo attacker Will Fitzgerald dragged a shot past the target during the early exchanges.
However, Jason McClelland and Adam Murphy did threaten at the opposite end and the Saints grew into the game as it developed. Although Thijs Timmermans was withdrawn in the closing stages of the opening half, the hosts remained in the hunt for their sixth league triumph of 2023.
Yet it was their opponents who broke the deadlock 11 minutes after the resumption when Mata confidently headed home Johan Brannefalk’s cross from the right-hand side.
Pat’s introduced a number of players off the bench in an attempt to get themselves back into the reckoning, but with one of them (former Sligo striker Eoin Doyle) receiving a red card in the closing moments, they ultimately couldn’t conjure an equaliser.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lyness; Sjoberg (McGrath, 66 mins), Curtis, Lewis, Breslin; Timmermans (Kreida, 45+3 mins); Murphy (Lonergan, 66 mins), Forrester; McClelland (Atakayi, 71 mins), Mulraney; Carty (E Doyle, 66 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS: McNicholas; Brannefalk (Lafferty, 84 mins), Mahon, Pijnaker, Hutchinson; Morahan, Browning; Liivak, Barlow (Radosavljevic, 46 mins), Fitzgerald; Mata (Cawley 77 mins).
Referee: N Doyle (Dublin).