St Pat's seal first win in Setanta Cup

St. Patrick's Athletic 2 Linfield 0

A terrific Gary O'Neill goal sealed St. Patrick's first win in the Setanta Sports Cup to get them right back into contention in Group 2.

O'Neill struck with a sublime finish from 20 yards on 76 minutes to earn Saints the points to move them marginally ahead of Derry into second place on goals scored. Linfield remain two points clear at the top.

Watched by Ireland assistant boss Marco Tardelli, Saints utterly dominated a one-side first half, but must have been disappointed to have been only 1-0 up at the interval.

That came on seven minutes when Ryan Guy put Mark Quigley through on goal. And though his initial shot came back off a post, Quigley followed up to shoot home the rebound.

St. Pat's had a scare five minutes into the second half when Paul McAreavey missed a sitter.

Substitute Alan Kirby did precisely that at the other end within a minute when shooting wide after Quigley played him through before O'Neill clinched it.