St. Patrick's Athletic 2 - 1 UCD

• Philip O'Rourke
• Sat, Jul 10 2010


St Patrick’s Athletic went back to the top of the Airtricity Premier League table thanks to a brace from Shane Guthrie as they beat UCD 2-1 in dreadful conditions at Richmond Park on Friday night.

It only took 60 seconds for St Patricks Athletic to create the first opening of the match when Brian Cash played Paul Byrne through but the former UCD striker slipped and shot well wide.

With the rain pouring down, tackles started to fly in early and UCD’s Paul O’ Connor was lucky not to be booked for a rash challenge in the middle of the park. The first booking of the game came in the 11th minute and it was UCD’s Brian Shorthall who received a yellow card for a tackle on Paul Byrne.

Six minutes later St Pats took the lead with the help of a goalkeeping error. Cash whipped in a corner only for UCD’s goalkeeper, Billy Brennan to flap at it. The ball falling to Shane Guthrie the defender headed home from close range.

The game was played at a fast pace and it was in the 23rd minute that UCD got their reward for playing some good football. Some great work from Dwayne Wilson who dribbled his way into the box, found Graham Rusk whose shot was blocked by Derek Pender. The ball then fell to Chris Mulhall and he put the ball past Gary Rogers to send the away fans mad.

Neither side created much and St Pats forward Paul Byrne didn’t’ have the best of nights as he failed to hit the target with any of his efforts. UCD to their credit played nice football but it was clear that they were content on playing counter attacking football.

St Pats came out at half-time and immediately pressed UCD but without opening up the Students defence. It was in the 52nd minutes that some nice foot work from Cash made space in the UCD box which allowed him to curl a left footed shot at goal but Brennan was equal to it and he tipped the effort over the bar.

The game became scrappy and with the rain pouring down it made for dreadful conditions to play a football match. It wasn’t until the 81st minute when Ryan Guy crossed in a corner and yet again UCD failed to deal with it. It was clearly Shane Guthrie’s night as he had the easy task of heading in from close range to get his second of the game and put St Pats into the lead and back top of the Airtricity Premier League table tonight.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Gary Rogers, Derek Pender, Damien Lynch, Connor Kenna, Shane Guthrie, Stuart Byrne, David Mulcahy,(David McAllister 61) Brian Cash,( Vinny Faherty 77) Paul Byrne,(Daniel North 87) Derek Doyle, Ryan Guy
Subs: Noel Haverty, Paul Hunt

Yellow Cards: Brian Shorthall (UCD), Derek Doyle, Stuart Byrne (St Pats)

UCD: Billy Brennan, Brian Shorthall,(Sean Harding 52)(Robbie Creevy 72) Andy Boyle, Ciaran Nangle, Evan McMillan, Paul Corry, Graham Rusk, Paul O’ Connor, Ciaran Kilduff, Dwayne Wilson, Chris Mulhall (Keith Ward 62)
Subs: Stephen Roche, Gerrard Barron

Extratime.ie Man of The Match: Shane Guthrie