St Patrick’s Athletic 6 Bray Wanderers 0
St Patrick’s Athletic spread the goals around with five different names on the scoresheet as they eased into the second round of the FAI Cup at Richmond Park.
Outpassing First Division promotion playoff hopefuls Bray from the off, St Pat’s were in front on 23 minutes.
Jamie Lennon swept the ball wide left for Billy King who checked inside to get his low shot away. Ireland under-21 international goalkeeper Brian Maher took his eye off the ball which deflected off his left glove into the net.
The home side doubled their lead on 38 minutes. A fine move found King in acres of space on the left to cross for Jay McClelland to score with a superb diving header.
Though Dylan Barnett forced a tip-over save from Vitezslav Jaros early in the second half, normal service resumed at the other end on 54 minutes.
Skipper Ian Bermingham whipped over a superb deep cross from the left touchline to find the totally unmarked Ben McCormack for the 18-year-old to head home his first goal for the club.
It was all over as a contest three minutes after that.
Again Bermingham delivered a terrific cross which was nodded down by McClelland for Sam Bone to rifle to the net off a post.
Paddy Barrett got in on the scoring act to make it 5-0 on 62 minutes, showing clever feet for a centre back before curling a delightful right-foot shot to the top corner.
King completed the rout on 76 minutes with his second goal of the night, drilling a shot from a tight angle to the far corner of the net.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Jaros (Keeley, 80 mins); Bone, Barrett, Desmond (Mountney, 64 mins), Bermingham; Lennon, Lewis (Corbally, 77 mins); King (Lonergan, 80 mins), McCormack, McClelland; Smith.
BRAY WANDERERS: Maher; Quinn (Callan, 79 mins), Barry, Jones; Doyle, Byrne (Lovic, 61 mins), O'Farrell, Craven, Barnett (O'Shea, 79 mins); Kavanagh (Shaw, 61 mins), Verdon (Kinsella, 71 mins).
Referee: John McLoughlin (Roscommon).
Shamrock Rovers 2 Galway United 0
Shamrock Rovers withstood a spirited second-half performance from Galway United to confirm their place in the second round at Tallaght Stadium.
Early goals from Rory Gaffney, against his hometown club, and Dylan Watts had the Hoops cruising at the break but John Caulfield’s side made a real game of it in the second half.
The visitors found Rovers goalkeeper Alan Mannus in inspired form, while striker Ruairí Keating was desperately unlucky to see his effort come back off the post as they sought a route back in.
That little extra bit of quality just eluded them, however, as Rovers showed their clinical touch twice in five first-half minutes to book their passage to the last 16.
The Tribesmen put it up the Hoops in the early stages, with Maurice Nugent seeing his header saved, but they fell behind to Rovers’ first real chance of the game.
Richie Towell found room wide on the right and curled in a stunning cross behind the Galway centre backs, and Gaffney needed no stronger invitation to nudge home his ninth of the season.
Gaffney was pivotal again four minutes later as he set Seán Gannon free on the right and his cross found the late-arriving Watts to apply a tidy finish into the bottom corner.
They came within an inch of trebling their lead early in the second half with a near identical move to the one that produced for Watts.
Gaffney again released Gannon and he pulled the ball back for Towell, who caught the ball sweetly on the half-volley only to see his shot brush the outside of Conor Kearns’s post.
Galway took their good fortune as an omen and began to show more in attack, and it took an outstanding save from Mannus to push sub Caoilfhionn O’Dea’s shot out of the bottom corner.
Brilliant work from Mikey Place in his own half, and a lovely crossfield ball, created room for Keating to cut inside. He beat Mannus, but not the base of the post, as Rovers breathed a sigh of relief.
Mannus was again in top form as another sub, Pádraic Cunningham, found space in the box and tried to pick out the top corner, but the Belfast man produced a big hand to claw it away.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Alan Mannus; Joey O'Brien (Liam Scales, 62 mins), Roberto Lopes, Lee Grace; Seán Gannon, Gary O'Neill, Dylan Watts, Seán Kavanagh (Max Murphy, 79 mins); Graham Burke, Richie Towell (Conan Noonan, 72 mins), Rory Gaffney (Aaron Greene, 72 mins).
GALWAY UNITED: Conor Kearns; Christopher Horgan, Maurice Nugent, Stephen Walsh, Joe Gorman;, Mikie Rowe (Pádraic Cunningham, 72 mins), Gary Boylan, Alex Murphy (Caoilfhionn O'Dea, 31 mins); Mikey Place (Colin Kelly, 81 mins), Ruairí Keating, Wilson Waweru (Thomas Oluwa, 46 mins).
Referee: Rob Hennessy (Clare).
UCD 2 Shelbourne 0
Colm Whelan and Harvey O’Brien grabbed second-half goals at Belfield last night to give UCD an impressive Dublin derby victory over Shelbourne in the first round.
Despite being 15 points adrift of their Drumcondra rivals in the First Division table, the Students defied the odds to book their spot in the next phase.
Republic of Ireland under-21 international Whelan had forced a fine stop out of Brendan Clarke during the early exchanges, before Shels winger Shane Farrell pressed UCD netminder Lorcan Healy into action at the opposite end.
Centre half Maxim Kouogon was close to breaking the deadlock for the visitors with a brace of set-piece headers, but the sides were ultimately inseparable at the interval.
Whelan was booked for diving four minutes after the resumption, before making amends in the eyes of the UCD faithful by coolly converting a 56th-minute penalty after George Poynton had fouled him inside the box.
This threw down the gauntlet to Shels, who are yet to taste defeat at league level this year. While Dayle Rooney and Michael Barker tried their luck from distance, UCD remained in control and O’Brien’s powerful headed finish off Paul Doyle’s corner on 80 minutes placed the outcome beyond doubt.
UCD: Healy; Osam, O'Brien, Todd, Weir; Keaney, Brennan (Keane, 88 mins); Kerrigan, Doyle, Dignam (Verdon, 96 mins); Whelan.
SHELBOURNE: Clarke; Barker, Kouogon (Fernandes, 86 mins), Gilchrist, K O'Connor; Lunney (Wilson, 86 mins), Poynton (E Molloy, 62 mins); Farrell (Brennan, 62 mins), Rooney, McManus; M O'Connor.
Referee: D Dunne.
Other results:
Wexford 3 Cabinteely 0
St Kevin’s Boys 1 Kilnamanagh 4
Maynooth University 4 Malahide United 0
Athlone Town 4 Waterford 4 (aet, 3-3 after 90 mins; Waterford win 4-2 on pens)
