Monaghan United 0 - 0 St. Patrick's Athletic

• Peter Hughes
• Sat, Aug 15 2009


A St Patrick’s Athletic side lacking only cup-tied Declan O’Brien came close to being humbled at the hands of First Division Monaghan United in a scoreless but highly entertaining Fourth Round FAI Cup encounter at Kingspan Century Park.
Jeff Kenna’s side settled early into a composed passing pattern, and when Mark Quigley tested in-form United keeper Aaron McCarey from distance in the 10th minute they looked set to dominate. Instead they were abruptly pushed onto the backfoot by a home side who deployed two tough-tackling central midfielders in Don Tierney and Alan Byrne to good effect, and began to dictate proceedings.
All Monaghan lacked was a cutting edge in the box. It was nearly supplied in the unlikely form of overlapping full- back Paul Whelan in the 34th minute. Whelan burst into the area and his low drive was fingertipped away by Gary Rogers.
St Pat’s reasserted themselves before half time, Damian Lynch unleashing a wicked 25-yarder that saw McCarey, the Republic of Ireland U-17 custodian, fly across his goal to parry one-handed.
McCarey, who chalked up his fifth clean sheet in succession, denied Quigley again in the 64th minute after St Pat’s had unfurled a dazzling passing move. But the visitors could have gone behind two minutes later when Karl Bermingham beat their offside trap but flashed a shot inches past the post.
Tiredness seemed to afflict both defences in the closing stages, producing an exciting final act to the cup-tie drama. In the 83rd minute Monaghan midfielder Cathal O’Connor was denied on the double, first by the diving Rogers and secondly by the near goal-line intervention of David Partridge. With four minutes on the clock
Monaghan’s Aidan Lynch – brother of St Pat’s Damian – hauled down Bobby Ryan outside the box and from the free- kick St Pats substitute Alan Cawley skimmed the crossbar.
MONAGHAN UNITED: McCarey; Whelan, Lynch, Gartland, Grimes; O’Connor, Tierney, Byrne, Clancy; Bermingham, Freeman (Hanaphy 75).
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Gavin, Harris (Maher h-time), Partridge, Stevens; O’Connor (B Ryan 75), Guy, Dempsey (Cawley 60), Lynch; Quigley, Fitzpatrick.
Referee: Paul Tuite