Double strike from Hallows grinds St Patrick's to a halt

The writing on the wall of the home side's dressing room proclaims winners to be workers but sometimes, as St Patrick's Athletic proved at Richmond Park last night, all the graft in the world can't achieve what simply wasn't meant to be.

Had Pat Dolan's side put away every chance that came their way, they'd have had us reaching for the record books but while the local strike-force were recklessly wasteful, Marcus Hallows was economy itself. Two attempts, two goals - it was a success rate which Martin Reilly could only marvel at as the final whistle sounded.

Reilly, deployed wide on the right in a four-man midfield, had seemed the most likely to break the deadlock early on, his pace repeatedly causing difficulty for Matt Hare and Mark Hutchison in the Sligo defence.

But time and again he and his team-mates were wide of the mark while on those rare occasions they did find the target, Rovers stalwart Nick Brujos or one of his defenders was on hand to make a last-ditch intervention.

The upshot was that, 15 matches after they lost at home to Shelbourne, St Patrick's were beaten again and the success of their rivals across the city cost the Inchicore club the leadership of the Premier Division.

The home side may have dominated for long stretches but at the other end Marcus Hallows and Sean Flannery, the latter a young local drafted in for the injured Padraig Moran, scarcely looked overawed by their brush with a St Patrick's defence which had been much less tight-fisted than usual over the past couple of weeks.

Playing with the wind at their backs in the opening period, the Rovers pairing might have expected to see a good deal more of the ball but the Dubliners had much the better of the early exchanges in midfield, leaving the visitors to snatch at what they could from long range and set pieces.

However, it was Aled Rowlands who should have put Rovers in front after just five minutes. Trevor Wood sliced his attempted clearance but the midfielder made a similarly botched job of his lob towards an empty goal.

On the face of it, the turnaround promised to be a considerable setback to Nicky Reid's team but when Flannery's clever flick just 50 seconds into the second period sent his striking partner into space in the area, the entire balance of the game shifted. The finish was, as Dolan commented afterwards, superb and suddenly the title favourites were in trouble.

Within 14 minutes it was 2-0, Thomas Morgan's attempt to clear bouncing off Lee Thew before falling fortuitously to Hallows a dozen yards out, from where he once again buried it. And a matter of seconds later Steve Jones went terribly close to making it three with a low drive across goal which wasn't far wide of the left hand post.

There the game turned, however, and after St Patrick's reduced the deficit when Brujos had pushed Paul Osam's cross into the path of Trevor Molloy six yards out, it seemed entirely plausible that the Dubliners would salvage at least a point.

Their finishing, however, particularly that of Reilly - who on another night would surely have rescued the situation singlehandedly - was abysmal. On the other hand, while Sligo's brand of last ditch defending was effective when required, it was hardly the stuff of textbooks.

Brujos, though brilliant on occasions, looked distinctly uncomfortable under a high ball and he saw many of them through the closing stages. Around him there was plenty of support as Rovers dug in for what was only their sixth win of the season (four of the others having come against the bottom two teams) and more than once he was saved by his teammates after coming off his line to meet a cross or corner which he had badly misjudged.

He could hardly have been blamed had Reilly equalised three minutes from time when Mark Hutchison allowed the ball to get past him inside the area but having slipped the ball low past the goalkeeper and towards the bottom left hand corner, the home side were this time thwarted by Matty Hare who launched himself feet first into the path of the ball to block on the line.

By the whistle even Wood was looking to get forward but Sligo got their victory, proving perhaps that as important as work is in football, sometimes want, on the scale Nicky Reid's side clearly had, can be enough to bring rewards.

St Patrick's Athletic: Wood; Campbell, Lynch, Hawkins, Long; Reilly, Gormley, Morgan, Osam; Gilzean, Molloy. Subs: Croly for Morgan (61 mins); Gaynor for Long (66 mins).

Sligo Rovers: Brujos; Southworth, Cobussen, Hare, Hutchison; Jones, Thew, Reid, Rowlands; Flannery, Hallows. Subs: O'Grady for Rowlands (90), Oates for Flannery (91).

Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).