St Patrick's Athletic (3)

Match Report

St Patrick's Athletic 3 - Portadown 0

JOHN McDONNELL'S new signings led the Saints march as St Patrick's Athletic made a perfect Setanta Cup debut with an emphatic 3-0 victory over Portadown at Richmond Park last night.

Last year's PFAI player of the year Joseph Ndo made a triumphant return to Inchicore when he opened the scoring before his ex-Shels team-mate Alan Kirby bagged two within 12 minutes of the restart.

Portadown got a couple of early chances but the three new signings of Kirby, Ndo and Gary O'Neill began to control the pace of the game and their pressure paid off after 41 minutes when O'Neill played Ndo through with a perfectly-weighted pass to beat Portadown 'keeper and former Sheffield Wednesday legend Kevin Pressman.

Ndo then turned provider for the home side just six minutes into the second half when he coolly slid Kirby through after a poor clearance from Pressman and Kirby finished emphatically, slamming the ball into the roof of the net.

Six minutes later Pat's extended their lead when Keith Fahey strode all of 40 yards in a pacey counter-attack before presenting the ball for Kirby, who slipped the ball into the bottom right from an almost identical position for his second goal of the night.

© Irish Independent