Leinster Senior Cup Report: St. Pat's CY 2 - 4 Dundalk

Dundalk returned to competitive action on Thursday night as they advanced to the quarter-finals of the Leinster Senior Cup with a 4-2 win over St Patrick’s CY in Ringsend.

 

A brace from Ciaran Kilduff along with goals from Carlton Ubaezuono and the irrepressible Patrick McEleney were enough for The Lilywhites to see off the Leinster Senior League outfit, who twice pulled goals back through David Cassidy and Dean Gannon.

 

St Pat’s CY started brightly on the Ringsend Park astro pitch with a view to upsetting the SSE Airtricity League champions and the Lilywhites who were unsettled early when goalkeeper Gary Rogers was forced off after just five minutes.

 

The recurring calf injury is certain to keep him out of their league opener against Shamrock Rovers in a fortnight.

 

That will infuriate Stephen Kenny after he named seven under-19 players in his matchday squad in hope of avoiding any injuries to his first-team regulars ahead of the league campaign.

 



However, one of those players opened the scoring on 37 minutes after a neat exchange between McEleney and Kilduff. The latter placed an excellent ball into the path of the inrushing Ubaezuono who fired past Sean Coffey into the bottom left corner to score his first goal for the club.  

 

 

 

The goal came after Paddy Barrett’s long range effort and McEleney’s audacious chip had previously failed to trouble Coffey in the St Pat’s CY goal.

 

McEleney went close with a free kick in the early stages of the second half before John Mountney saw his header cleared off the line by Thomas Walsh.

 

Dundalk doubled their advantage soon afterwards when Ubaezuono released McEleney and he squared the ball into the six-yard box to Kilduff who made no mistake with the finish as the Lilywhites were seemingly home and dry.

 

Much to their credit though, Stephen Geoghegan’s side never gave up the fight and halved the deficit in the 64th minute when Cassidy – Dundalk’s player of the year in 2008 – slotted home after reacting quickest from a cross which Gabriel Sava failed to deal with.

 

McEleney was again the architect as Dundalk restored their two-goal advantage. Sava’s kick out was headed on by Barrett to McEleney. His exquisite pass sent Kilduff through on goal and he finished superbly for his second of the night.

 

Ubaezuono almost added another moments later when his shot was blocked after Coffey fumbled a free-kick before Conor Clifford went close to a debut goal from a shot.

 

Sava definitely had a night to forget and his woeful clearance went straight to substitute Dean Gannon who lobbed past the despairing Dundalk goalkeeper.

 

Dundalk sealed their passage into the quarter-finals right at the death though and it was that man again as McEleney capped his virtuoso performance with a deserved goal from a Dane Massey cross, firing past Coffey after manoeuvring his way around the St Pat’s defence.

 

St Patrick’s CY: Sean Coffey; Gareth Matthews, Lee Joyce, Gerard Griffin, Thomas Walsh; Graham Hannigan, Aaron Montgomery, David Cassidy, Dean Kelly; Paul Healy, Glen Keddy.

Subs not used: Dean Gannon, Inaki Moreno, Andrew Doolin, Lee Harrison, Brian O’Reilly, Jonathan Rooney, Daragh Healy.

Booked: Keddy (34).

 

Dundalk: Gary Rogers (Gabriel Sava 5); Sean Gannon, Paddy Barrett, Niclas Vemmelund, Dane Massey; Keith Dalton (Jake O’Connor 74), Conor Clifford, John Mountney, Carlton Ubaezuono; Patrick McEleney (Jack O’Keefe 90), Ciaran Kilduff.

Subs not used: Dean Watters, James Rice, Emmet Hughes.

Booked: None.

 

Attendance: 100 (estimate)

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Patrick McEleney (Dundalk)

 

 

 

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