- Cormac Kennedy
- Fri, May 30 2014
A frail Derry City defence was punished by a Christy Fagan hat-trick to give St. Pats a 5-2 victory in Richmond Park.
Tonight's performance from Pats was the perfect response to a surprising 2-0 away defeat at Thomond Park last week to Limerick. On the other side, Derry failed to follow an impressive victory against Drogheda in their last league outing.
The Saints were the dominant force from the outset as Derry failed to secure a first away victory of the season.
The tone was set within the opening 15 seconds when Christy Fagan and Christopher Forrester combined well to set up the latter with a shot from the edge of the box.
Even though it was early in the match when the first goal came it seemed like it was long overdue.
Forrester broke through the Derry midfield before sliding an intricate reverse pass into the feet of Fagan on the edge of the box, who then swivelled before hitting a left footed-shot into the bottom corner after 19 minutes.
Fagan received a gift of a second goal shortly afterwards. Michael Duffy was caught on the ball by Keith Fahey who jogged into acres of space before chipping Gerard Doherty, but Ryan McBride was back on the line to block the shot and his attempted clearance re-bounded off of Fagan into the net on the 19th minute.
The Saints did not need to be at their free flowing best in a match where Derry's defence and midfield looked fearful of the quality in the Pats side.
Forrester was a constant torn in the Derry defence as he weaved his way in and out on numerous occasions, creating chance after chance.
The third goal came from a fan favourite in workhorse Conan Byrne who headed in a Killian Brennan corner on the 23d minute.
Derry offered little going forward in the first half but Patrick McEleney was brought infield from the wing and he started to get on the ball a bit more linking with Barry McNamee ad Rory Paterson.
However soon after the restart a Killian Brennan out swinging free kick found the head of young Sean Hoare at the back post to claim his first senior goal for the Saints.
Derry City managed to get a goal back on the 60th minute thanks to a fantastic effort from Michael Duffy. He unleashed a rasping effort from outside the box going in off the post and leaving Brendan Clarke stranded in the Pats goal.
Disaster struck again for Derry after 72 minutes. The ball was passed back to Gerard Doherty in the Derry goal and as Fagan chased him down Doherty managed to boot the ball off at the Pats forward who composed himself to finish easily.
As the match trundled towards an inevitable victory to the Saints Derry managed to grab a second. Barry McNamee nipped in to dispossess substitute Lee Lynch before squaring the ball to Rory Patterson to score into the empty goal after 82 minutes.
The Saints were clear and deserved winners against a poor Derry side.
St. Patrick's Athletic: Brendan Clarke; Ger O'Brien, Sean Hoare, Kenny Browne, Ian Bermingham; Conan Byrne, Keith fahey, James Chambers (Conor McCormack 78), Killian Brennan, Chris Forrester (Lee Lynch 74); Christy Fagan (Mark Quigley 74)
Subs not used: Rene Gilmartin (gk), Lorcan Fitzgerald, Greg Bolger, Daryl Kavanagh.
Booked: Browne (55)
Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Shane McEleney, Ryan McBride, Aaron Barry, Dean Jarvis; Patrick McEleney (Raymond Foy 90+2), Danny Ventre (John Paul McGovern 64), Barry Molloy, Barry McNamee, Michael Duffy; Rory Patterson (Nathan Boyle 85).
Subs not used: Joshua Tracey, Tony McNamee, Michael Lynch, Ryan Curran.
Booked: S McEleney (48).
Referee: Paul McLaughlin
Attendance: 1,200 (estimate)
Extratime Man of the Match: James Chambers (St Patrick's Ath)
