St Pat's stretch lead to four points

St. Patrick's Athletic 1 Cobh Ramblers 0

St. Pat's stretched the lead at the top of the table to four points, but they had to work every inch of the way to beat dogged Cobh at Richmond Park.

In-form St. Pat's showed little mercy to newly promoted Cobh early on taking what would prove their match winning lead on 11 minutes from a well-worked goal.

Gary Dempsey fed Mark Quigley whose cross picked out Ryan Guy who shot home his third goal of the season from just inside the box.

Cobh didn't lie down, though, and made it difficult for Saints to increase their lead.

Des Byrne did hit the Ramblers' crossbar in the second half, but that was as close as Saints came to extending their winning margin.