St Patrick’s Athletic 5 Inchicore Athletic 0
St Patrick’s Athletic produced an accomplished second half display at Richmond Park to eventually claim local bragging rights over 10-man Inchicore Athletic.
Thanks to a committed defensive effort, the Leinster Senior League side – playing in this competition for the first time – were on level terms at the midway point.
The 46th-minute dismissal of Leon Fahey-Byrne was too much of an obstacle for them to overcome, though, and Pat’s ultimately made hay with goals from Darragh Markey, Jake Keegan (two), Conan Byrne and Simon Madden.
After Ryan Brennan was denied by the woodwork in the early stages of the contest, Ian Turner also saw his header – off an exquisite Madden delivery – rebounding against the crossbar.
This helped to keep Inchicore in the frame, but disaster struck for the non-league outfit straight from the restart. Following his foul on raiding Saints attacker Dean Clarke, left-back Fahey-Byrne was issued with a second yellow-card.
This inevitably led to a Pat’s breakthrough – Markey making no mistake with a neat finish into the bottom left-hand corner on 55 minutes.
They subsequently doubled their advantage when a speculative shot from Keegan slipped through the fingertips of Inchicore netminder Patrick Reilly and Byrne signalled his arrival to the fray by immediately slotting home an 81st-minute penalty.
Keegan compounded the woes of a deflated Inchicore with his second goal off the bench, before the excellent Madden rounded off the scoring for the 2014 champions in the closing stages.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: B Clarke; Desmond, K Brennan, Toner; Madden, R Brennan (Clifford, 62 mins), Lennon, Markey, Birmingham; Turner (Byrne, 80 mins), D Clarke (Keegan, 62 mins).
INCHICORE ATHLETIC: Reilly; Plunkett, Donohue, Roche, Fahey Byrne; Bolton, Power (Malone, 58 mins), Cronin (O’Rourke, 78 mins), Howe, Geraghty; Kinch (Fay, 21 mins).