Waterford United 1 - 1 St. Patrick's Athletic

• Adrian Flanagan
• Sat, Sep 12 2009


Waterford and St Patrick's Athletic must do it all over again on Tuesday night after their one all draw at the RSC tonight.

The Dublin outfit had the ball in the net after less than a minute when Gary Dempsey put Glen Fitzpatrick in the clear and although he fired past a helpless Michael Devine, the flag of assistant referee Ed McNally was raised to end goal celebrations.

Willie John Kiely should have put the Blues in front on 14 minutes when he latched onto an excellent Kevin Waters delivery but despite getting in between two defenders, he lobbed over the crossbar from four yards when he should have scored.

However, the striker did get on the scoresheet less than three minutes later when Stephen Grant worked hard in the penalty area and after the Pat’s defence failed to clear the ball, Kiely powered an unstoppable right-footed effort past the helpless Gary Rogers from the edge of the area.

Rogers made a decent stop on 35 minutes when he kept out a low right-footed effort from Kiely after he had raced onto a flicked Graham Cummins.

Former Waterford United player Gary Dempsey thought he had levelled the tie on 40 minutes when he got on the end of a pass from Ryan Guy but the resulting right-footed shot just whistled past the upright with Devine struggling. The Premier Division outfit started the second period like a proverbial house on fire and it was Michael Devine that twice came to his sides rescue inside the opening five minutes.

When Stephen Maher got free down the right-wing on 48 minutes, he put the ball on the head of Gary Dempsey with a pin-point cross but somehow Devine kept the ball out and two minutes later, the Blues captain made an excellent stop to deny Damien Lynch’s cracking 25-yard effort.

St Pat’s got back on level terms after practically dominating the early stages of the second period on 70 minutes when Bobby Ryan whipped in a right-wing cross that wasn’t dealt with by the Waterford defence and Gary Dempsey was on hand to hammer the ball past a helpless Devine from six yards.

WATERFORD UNITED: Devine; Carey, Murray, Browne, Murray, Long; Mulcahy (Warren `65), Grant, Kearney, Waters; Kiely (Warren `78), Cummins

ST PATRICKS ATHLETIC: Rogers; B Ryan, Gavin, Lynch, Stevens; Guy, Dempsey, Byrne, Cawley, Maher; Fitzpatrick

Referee: Anthony Buttimer (Cork)