St Patrick’s Athletic remain unbeaten at this level after beating Longford Town 5-0. Anto Purdy scored twice with Keith Carter, Cian Lee and Jake Walker also on the scoresheet.
Longford’s James Dermody was full of praise for a very impressive Pats team saying “St Pats are the team in the league to beat this season. Their play is outstanding and they keep possession really well.”
“Three errors saw us go in 3-0 down at half time, 2 set plays that were easy to deal with, and we didn’t manage them at all. The other goal was a good cross that we should have prevented, and again defensively we didn’t react.”
“All the goals came from wide areas and in general I thought we had kept our shape really well, but the wide players of Pats are exceptional and did well getting in behind us using the width very well.”
“Every game for my squad is about learning and taking the positives out of. We had loads of positives today and although the result doesn’t say that, we know this group is heading in the correct direction.”
“By the time we play our next game we will be a new squad, as multiple players are stepping up the U-19’and we want to wish them every success in the next stage of their development.”
See all the St Pats goals here;
WATCH: A good win for our U17s yesterday against Longford. Here's the goals. Jake Walker's strike was even too quick for the camera! pic.twitter.com/JQYY0qqUPM
— St Patrick's Ath (@stpatsfc) May 29, 2017
Dundalk beat Sligo Rovers 4-2 to try and keep some pressure on the leaders, as they sit just one point behind but with two games more played.
Sligo’s Danny O’Leary said after the game, “The game was played in very hot conditions, and refereed very well by today’s officials.”
“From our point of view it was very much a game of two halves, we were very poor in the first half and found ourselves two goals down inside 25 minutes. We got a goal back from Liam Kerrigan but conceded again just before half time.”
“In the second half we played very well, and scored five minutes in from a great move and finished by Darren Collins.”
“The lads gave everything to try and get back to 3-3 but we conceded a fourth goal when we were pushing forward with 10 minutes to go.”
“Overall the effort, desire and quality of play in the second half was outstanding, but we cant keep giving goals away in the first half of games. Dundalk played well, and took their chances.”
“Would like to give Liam Burns and his players credit as they played the game with a good attitude and manner, as did the officials.”
Shelbourne shocked Finn Harps with a 1-0 win. A 90th minute winner from Ali Reghba gave Shels all three points. Harps boss Declan Boyle was struggling with injuries for the game and will now be glad of the break until after the Leaving Certificate Examinations when some of those players should be fit to return.
Boyle said, “We are disappointed with the result, we played well enough in the game and created a lot of chances to have won the game, and when you don’t take your opportunities you sometimes pay the price. As a result, we got hit with a very late goal and obviously lost the match. Congratulations to Shelbourne FC who worked hard and played well on the day and deserved the three points.”
Bohemians had a 3-0 victory over Derry City, with goals from Mitchel Byrne, Liam McGrath and Ryan Hart.
Derry coach Gary Duffy said, “Both teams played good football in the first half with few shots on goal. We had two 1 on 1’s but shot straight at the Bohs goalkeeper.”
“On the stroke of half time Bohs took the lead with a corner being driven in low, it came up off the wet surface and deflected off Eddie O’Reilly and went into the net.”
“Bohs made it 2-0 20 minutes into the second half when their centre forward had space inside the box before teeing up the midfielder (McGrath) who scored from the edge of the box.”
“The third goal came with 5 minutes left when the Bohs striker (Hart) again got free in the 18 yard box and smashed the ball into the net himself.”
Athlone Town welcomed Monaghan/Cavan to Lisseywollen on saturday hoping to put an end to a 3-game losing streak, and it was the highest scoring game over the weekend as the midlanders won 7-4.
“We had worked hard in training last week but needed to bring it into real game situation,” said Athlone’s Brian Mc Cormack.
Athlone started well and went 2 up early with goals from Neil Macken and Callum McKelvey. Monaghan pulled one back but a great strike from TJ Cox had Athlone 3-1 up at the break.
Early Monaghan pressure in the second half had the score at 3-2 before goals from Tom O’Carroll (2) and Oisin O’Reilly put Athlone 6-2 ahead.
Further Monaghan goals had it at 6-4 before a second goal from TJ Cox left the final score at 7-4 to Athlone.
McCormack said, “We had been struggling to take our chances so to score seven goals was a plus for us, although to concede four was not so good.”
“To be fair to Monaghan they never stopped trying, and even at 6-2 down kept on playing. It was a good open game with both sides adapting well to the heavy rain which fell throughout the game.”
“Happy to end our losing run, so we will work through the break in training and prepare for our next game away to Finn Harps in a few weeks.”
Monaghan’s Paul Smyth didn’t hold back after the game, “That was our worst performance of the season to date. We never give ourselves a chance in the game being 3-0 down after 30 minutes. We rallied somewhat early in the second half but Athlone pulled away again.”
“One positive was that Aaron McCabe and Oisin Brady got off the mark at this level with two good goals.”
“We now look to re-group over the break and perhaps add in a couple of players to see if we can have better results in the second half of the season.”