St Pat's keep pressure up on Sligo

St Patrick’s Athletic 2 Shamrock Rovers 1

St Patrick’s Athletic kept their tenuous title aspirations alive as they inflicted further misery on Shamrock Rovers at Richmond Park.

The win lifts St Pat’s over Drogheda United into second place in the table, six points behind leaders Sligo Rovers with five games to play.

Rovers, who've suffered four successive defeats in all competitions, are now seven points off third place and looking like they will need St. Pat’s to win the FAI Cup if they are to make Europe next year.

Despite a positive start, Rovers were 2-0 down after just nine minutes.

Referee Neil Doyle deemed Rovers’ midfielder Stephen O’Donnell handled a shot from Sean O’Connor which saw the St. Pat’s winger send Oscar Jansson the wrong way from the resultant penalty for the lead on seven minutes.

Two minutes later Rovers had little complaint as a mistake by Craig Sives gifted the ball to Jake Carroll, a blunder compounded by Hoops’ skipper Colin Hawkins turning the midfielder’s low cross into the roof of Jansson’s net.

Rovers responded well with Finn having shots deflected out for corners either side of St Pat’s keeper Barry Murphy making a brilliant save to thwart Ciaran Kilduff after Sives flicked on a Gary McCabe corner.

In a less lively second half, McCabe gave Rovers hope 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.