Doyle brace not enough for Pats

St Patrick’s Athletic 2 Dundalk 2

Derek Doyle, their match winner in Europe last week, maintained his scoring flush with a brace of goals, but it wasn’t enough as St. Pat’s failed to get the win required to regain the leadership of the Premier Division table.

In a cracking match from the start, St. Pat’s had the lead on 11 minutes.

Paul Crowley shot against Peter Cherrie’s right-hand post from 25 yards with the rebound being put out for a corner. Daryl Kavanagh whipped over the flag kick, captain for the afternoon, Evan McMillan, got the faintest of flicks for Doyle to confidently volley to the net.

Marc Griffin shot wide when he should have equalised when one-on-one with Gary Rogers before Cherrie made a good stop with his feet from Doyle back at the other end.

Dundalk then levelled on 33 minutes. St. Pat’s were short in midfield as Crowley was off receiving treatment for a facial cut, when full back Stephen Maher overlapped down the right to pull a superb cross back for Griffin to drill home from ten yards.

Their tails up, Dundalk took the initiative from the start of the second half. Rogers initially made an acrobatic tip over save from Mark Quigley’s 20 yard curler.

The defending from Ross Gaynor’s resultant corner was poor as Griffin headed goalward with midfielder Keith Ward claiming the final touch to force the ball over the line.

St. Pat’s responded well and were level on the hour mark. Livewire Kavanagh found space on the right to put over a super cross to the back post where Doyle scored with a perfectly placed downward header.

Cherrie deprived Doyle of his hat-trick on 73 minutes, getting down to his right to parry away the winger’s stinging shot on the turn following a scramble in the area.