St Patrick's Athletic (4)

St Patrick's Athletic 4 - Dundalk 0

Stephen Kenny stressed that St Patrick's Athletic's home form will be critical to any potential success this season and his players responded in kind with a 4-0 win over Dundalk at Richmond Park.

The Saints' manager demanded his side show an attacking intent from the get go here. That they did to run up an early 2-0 lead en route to a big first win of the campaign.

Zach Elbouzedi set the tone when getting a run on goal to work Conor Kearns inside 90 seconds.

Stout vistors' defending was soon needed with Aodh Dervin and Rob Cornwall blocking efforts from Barry Baggley and Kian Leavy as Saints probed with added purpose.

That duly paid off with the lead goal on 20 minutes following a comedy of errors.

First, Dervin was guilty of gifting the ball to Romal Palmer to put him through one-on-one with Kearns who saved with his feet.

Ryan Edmondson then miskicked before his drilled cross was cleared off the line by Harvey Warren.

The danger remained as the ball went straight back to the English striker whose cross was turned home by Palmer.

St Pat's then doubled their lead from their first corner of the night six minutes later.

Defender Sean Hoare, back from an injury-plagued 2025, cleverly lost his marker with a run from the far post to meet Jamie Lennon's delivery and glance his header to the net for his first goal since rejoining the club last year.

Dundalk enjoyed their first spell of pressure as half-time approached, Eoin Kenny, son of the St Pat's manager, ending a mazy dribble by forcing Joseph Anang into a tip over save.

Service resumed at the other end three minutes into the second half as St Pat's extended their lead.

New signing James Brown's cross wasn't cleared. The ball eventually broke to Elbouzedi who drilled his right footed shot into the corner of the net.

A valiant block by Luke Turner deprived Dundalk of a goal back when substitute Gbemi Arubi really should have scored from skipper Daryl Horgan's lay off.

With Dundalk pressing for good spells of the remainder of the game, that epitomised the home side's defensive fortitude.

St Pat's had done more than enough to answer their manager's wishes at the other end of the pitch, Chris Forrester and Darragh Nugent coming close before fellow substitute Aidan Keena added a fourth goal on 82 minutes, rifling home having been teed up by the energetic Leavy.

© rte.ie

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St Patrick's Athletic 4 - Dundalk 0

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