Early goals see St Pat’s close gap to leaders Sligo

St Patrick’s Athletic 2 Shamrock Rovers 1

Liam Buckley’s side leapfrog Drogheda United into second place and are just six points behind leaders Sligo Rovers with five games to play.

Conversely, Rovers’ fourth successive defeat (in all competitions) means their path to Europe via the league is surely gone as they’ll now almost certainly be relying on St Pat’s winning the FAI Cup if they are to make the Europa League next season.

Rovers took the game to their hosts from the off but were stunned by the ninth minute when a controversial penalty and an own goal had St Pat’s 2-0 up.

The opening came in the seventh minute when Sean O’Connor sent Oscar Jansson the wrong way from the penalty spot. O’Connor initially had a shot deflected out for a corner, but referee Neil Doyle incensed Rovers by insisting the ball came off an arm, apparently Stephen O’Donnell’s.

Two minutes later Rovers had little to complain about as St Pat’s scored again. A mistake by Craig Sives gifted the ball to Jake Carroll. That blunder was then compounded by Colin Hawkins turning Carroll’s low cross into the roof of Jansson’s net.

Rovers did respond well with a couple of shots deflected out for corners either side of Saints’ keeper Barry Murphy making a brilliant save low down to thwart Ciarán Kilduff.

But it should have been 3-0 on 26 minutes after another howler at the back by Rovers. This time Shane O’Connor made a mess of overlapping left-back Ian Bermingham’s cross but instead of shooting himself, Christy Fagan made a hash of trying to set up O’Connor and the chance was cleared.

McCabe gave Rovers hope cause for optimism with a stunning strike from distance on 77 minutes.

Then in a dramatic finale, Rovers came within inches of snatching an equaliser during seven minutes of stoppage time when Carroll deflected McCabe’s free kick against a post.

ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Murphy; O’Brien, Kenna, Flynn, Bermingham; Bolger, Chambers (Coombes 82), Carroll; O’Connor (Meenan 65), Fagan (Faherty 72), J Kelly.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Jansson; Gannon, Sives, Hawkins, O’Connor; O‘Donnell (Greene 62), Brennan; McCabe, Finn, Dennehy; Kilduff.

Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).

Attendance: 1,731.