League Report: St. Patrick’s Athletic 7 - 0 UCD

Luke Jordan reports from Richmond Park

There were goals galore in Richmond Park on Friday night as St Patrick’s Athletic thumped UCD 7-0 as the Saints go marching on with Shamrock Rovers firmly in their sights.

Goals from Chris Forrester, Sam Curtis, Mason Melia, Jason McClelland, an own goal, and a brace from Tommy Lonergan were the difference in an emphatic win against a struggling UCD.

Two changes to the Saints line up after their Monday night game as Jon Daly brought in Ben McCormack and Mark Doyle for Adam Murphy and Harry Brockbank. The latter hobbled off in the first half against Dundalk.

Andy Meyler’s men came into this game on the back of a brilliant 2-1 against Sligo Rovers last weekend and had hoped to replicate that performance.

Daly pre match spoke how he wanted a fast start from his team, but it was the away side who would have been the happier with the first ten minutes of action.

The Athletic faithful had their hearts in their mouths when Noah Lewis took too long on the ball and for a moment it looked like Danu Bishop might have pinched the ball, but Jamie Lennon was on hand to clean up to spare the Dutchman’s blushes.

Then in the tenth minute, the Saints came to life. After some slick football by the home side, Jake Mulraney got into space down the right but before he could get his cross off, he was taken down for a penalty kick. Up stepped Chris Forrester who made no mistake from 12 yards to make it 1-0.

The right-hand side of the Saints’ attack was proving a great outlet for the home side with Mulraney being a live wire the whole first half, causing the UCD defence all sorts of problems with his movement on and off the ball.

To UCD’s credit, their low block was proving difficult to breakdown and the Richmond Park crowd were becoming frustrated as their side was reduced to long range efforts that weren’t troubling Kian Moore in the goal.

Just before half time the Athletic made it two. After a poor execution of a free kick, the ball came back to Mulraney who jinked past his man, this time down the left, and his cross was turned into the net by the Students’ Michael Gallagher to make it 2-0.

It was three shortly after the interval. Like the last game between these two teams, UCD didn’t learn their lesson about corner kicks as Sam Curtis anticipated Mulraney’s corner as his header hit the net and it was 3-0.

As the second half wore on, it became an exhibition of attack against defence. Both managers made substitutions throughout and one of them, Tommy Lonergan, grabbed the fourth goal of the evening.

Forrester found himself in space once more and picked out Longeran, who drove with the ball into the box and fired his low shot into the wet grass to make it 4-0.

It was 5-0 three minutes later. Jason McClelland, who was on the pitch less than a minute, got himself on the end of a Tommy Lonergan cross to net Pat’s fifth with his first touch.

The goals kept coming in the way of the Athletic. It was 15-year-old Mason Melia who grabbed the Saints’ sixth and bagged his first league goal for the club after tremendous work by Curtis out on the right. With that goal, Melia goes in the record books as the youngest league goal scorer in League of Ireland history.

It was difficult for a youthful UCD team as their management tried to rally their players to keep their heads. However, the Saints scored their seventh of the contest. A Ben McCormack free kick found the head of Lonergan who buried it past Moore and it was 7-0.

It could have been eight in the final moments when it looked certain for Melia to get his second after a Curtis pull back, but a UCD defender made the block to keep the score line to seven.

That victory made it five wins from five at home for Jon Daly who secured their biggest league win of the season so far. Crucially, with Dundalk winning against Shamrock Rovers, they now go four points behind the league leaders with 12 games to play.

St. Patrick's Athletic: Dean Lyness; Anto Breslin, Sam Curtis, Noah Lewis, Jay McGrath; Chris Forrester, Jamie Lennon (Thijs Timmermans 59), Ben McCormack;Conor Carty (Jason McClelland 67), Mark Doyle (Mason Melia 60), Jake Mulraney (Thomas Lonergan 60).

Subs not used: David Odumosu, Darius Lipsiuc, Adam Murphy, Eoin Doyle. 

Booked: None. 

UCD: Kian Moore; Daniel Babb, Brendan Barr (Luke O'Regan 46), Jesse Dempsey (Ryan Bowden 78), Michael Gallagher (Harvey O'Brien 54), Evan Osam; SamiClarke, Jack Keaney, Danu Kinsella Bishop (Matthew Alonge 56); Jake Doyle, Alex Nolan.

Subs not used: Lorcan Healy, Kyle Donoghue, Harry O'Connor, Colin Bolton. 

Booked: Brendan Barr (44).

Referee: Neil Doyle

Attendance: 3,537 

extratime.com Player of the Match: Sam Curtis (St. Patrick’s Athletic)

League Report: Galway United 1 - 0 Kerry https://t.co/Ev3jond7y6pic.twitter.com/yHxl3yvxWi

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) June 30, 2023