St Patrick's Athletic (1)

Match Report

St Patrick's Athletic 1 - Limerick 1

Having beaten Longford Town 2-0 last week, St Pat's took on Limerick FC at Richmond Park on Saturday night looking to continue their impressive pre-season form.

Pete Mahon opted to rest key players Ryan Guy and Damien Lynch but his side still dominated the first half and deservedly took the lead when Vinny Faherty converted a cross from Ian Bermingham first time into the Limerick net.

Pat Scully's Limerick side which included new signings John McGuiness (Athlone Town), Stephen Hickey (Rock Rovers) and Sean Kelly(Galway United) came much more into the game in the second half. While the match was a friendly encounter on the eve of Valentines' day there was plenty tough tackling throughout with players eager to stake a claim on a starting place for the new season.

St Pat's had only themselves to blame when they failed to clear a corner midway through the second half and the returned ball was driven with pace into a crowded goalmouth and rebounded off Stuart Byrne into his own net.

The game finished 1-1 which was a disappointing result for the Saints after a very bright start.

However Pat's manager Pete Mahon was more concerned with the performance than the result “I thought we played very well for the first half hour, we passed the ball well but then it became a bit scrappy”.

“There was plenty of effort and ability on show which was good to see” he added “but the most important thing for us now is to play matches, we've a lot of new signings playing together for the first time and they need matches to get used to playing with each other”.

Match Info

Date: 13/02/2010
Competition: Friendly
Venue: Richmond Park
Attendance: 334

Home Team

Gary Rogers, Derek Pender, Conor Kenna, Shane Guthrie, Ian Bermingham, David McAllister, Stuart Byrne, Dave Mulcahy, Gareth Coughlan, Vinnie Faherty, Derek Doyle.