O'Flaherty saves penalty as 10 man St Patrick's survive

DOWN but far from out. Staring down the barrel of another defeat, reduced to 10 men, with a striker in goal and their manager removed from the dug out, St Patrick's showed the old Richmond Park fighting spirit is still alive in this crackling, incident packed encounter. Hereabouts, home teams are rarely beaten until the fat lady has reached the chorus.

Forced to chase the game after conceding a goal inside 10 minutes for the third game running, the champions' goose looked well and truly frazzled inside half an hour. Having levelled, they had keeper Brian McKenna sent off and subsequently went behind again but they responded in the only way they know.

Heroes there were aplenty. Ricky O'Flaherty's first act as a makeshift goalkeeper was to dive smartly to his left to save James Mulligan's penalty, and, one softish goal by his near post apart, the Galway folk hero of Inchicore dealt with everything gutsily and gamely.

Their supportive crowd could have done with a first league win rather than one of the moral variety, and had Trevor Croly not stubbed an inviting 83rd minute chance wide, they might have had three points.

Sligo can have few complaints. At the back, their nervousness and hesitancy on an admittedly blustery night was palpable. They frequently miscued clearances which invited St Patrick's on to them. The service to the front line and the electric Johnny Kenny dried up in the second half. Ian Gilzean laid the ball off skilfully to no avail, while James Mulligan, though lively throughout, was prolific in the extreme and persistently caught offside.

That said, Sligo were excellent in the first half. Kenny set the tone after just three minutes, Mulligan's pin point through ball inside Paul Osam releasing the flying winger. His first touch made his shooting angle too acute, so he steadied himself and crossed deftly for Ian Gilzean to score at the far post off the bar.

Brian Morrisroe, lacking confidence, missed two chances but all the while Kenny was skinning Osam and the St Patrick's defence was bedraggled. On 21 minutes though, it was Sligo's hesitancy which afforded an equaliser, centre halves Dale Hawtin and Ian Lynch stalling as St Patrick's appealed for a penalty when O'Flaherty's mis shot hit Hawtin's arm. Reilly nipped in to tuck away the equaliser smartly.

Within 60 seconds, Chris Twiddy burst onto Lee Thew's through ball, pushing the ball past Brian McKenna and going to ground. McKenna was vehement he played the ball - regardless of which the ball was probably going dead and away from goal. Even allowing for the rigidity of UEFA's ruling, referee Joey Byrne compounded the penalty decision by wrongly dismissing McKenna.

Stirringly, O'Flaherty parried Mulligan's penalty. Kerr, though conciliatory afterwards when claiming "it's a stupid rule, I feel the referees have their hands in their back pockets everytime", was removed from the dug out, and then from his vantage point on the opposite touchline.

By then Sligo had gone ahead after 29 minutes. Osam lost the ball to Kenny, whose low near post cross was converted by Mulligan past a wrong footed O'Flaherty. Sligo's defence offered St Patrick's plenty of encouragement, Reilly and Osam testing Broujos either side of, John McDonnell shooting over, Osam and the impressive debutant Keith Long volleyed over from skewered clearances before the inevitable happened in the 69th minute. Possibly distracted by the arrival of Johnny Glynn, Sligo's slack marking afforded Willie Burke an unchallenged cross from which Osam rose highest to direct his downward header low inside the far post.