St Patrick’s Athletic 3 Bohemians 0
Liam Buckley's side got comfortably the better of a disappointing Bohemians side at Richmond Park to build impressively on Friday's win in Longford. Two goals in the opening quarter of an hour effectively decided the game and long before Billy Dennehy turned home Conan Byrne's cross at the far post in the 90th minute, Ismahil Akinade's sending off with 24 remaining pretty much sealing the win for the home side.
The loss of the striker ended the best spell of the game for Bohemians who had a penalty claim and a couple of half chances in the opening 20 minutes of the second half and it compounded the concerns for Keith Long whose new look attack has scored just once now in the club's opening three league games.
Like their hosts, Bohemians had won at the weekend but their opponents here made it clear from the outset that they would be an altogether proposition to Sligo. The Inchicore outfit played with an urgency that had been wholly absent as Rovers slipped to a fairly soft defeat in Dalymount, moving the ball crisply around midfield, pressing players in possession and crucially proving far more effective in and around the Bohemians goal early on with goals from Mark Timlin and Christy Fagan leaving Mark Quigley and co with an awful lot to do by the 13th minute.
Quigley, predictably, provided a bit of a target for jibes from the home support and, far from silencing them, his performance yielded a fairly consistent source of ammunition.
At one point, the striker, playing in the middle of a three behind Akinade, did appear to be finding his feet with a long range, powerfully struck free at least giving Brendan Clarke something to think about as it hurtled towards him but the Dubliner's next set piece cleared not just the goalkeeper but the goal and jeering laughter rang around the around as he bounced about the roof of the shed end.
In front of him, Akinade made very little impact before being dismissed for a second bookable offence - a late challenge on Shgane McEleney - and Long will have to get a great deal more out of both of them if his side is to come anywhere close to reproducing last season’s early heroics.
Buckley, on the other hand, will be happy with what he got from his men early on with the visitors left struggling to cope as they were quickly closed down in midfield and outflanked on the wings, most obviously the left early on but on the right too later in the game when the dismissal had necessitated a reorganisation by Long that cost his side some width.
Ian Bermingham was their main problem through the opening stages with the left back overlapping more than once to good effect and it was his driven cross that Timlin turned home well for the opener barely five minutes in after Fagan had narrowly failed to make contact.
The second arrived eight minutes later when Billy Dennehy’s first time looping ball towards the edge of the six yard area dropped perfectly over Roberto Lopes for Fagan who headed beyond Delany.
Had Fagan managed to make it three shortly afterwards when Lopes slipped up in possession it could have been much worse for the visitors with the home side's midfield, anchored by Keith Treacy, completely dominant.
Bohemians kept at it, to be fair, but every time they sought to push forward they looked to be in danger of being cause on the break and so, when the third late on came, it was no great surprise at all.
St Patrick's Athletic: Clarke; O'Brien, McEleney, D Dennehy, Bermingham; Treacy (Verdon, 75); Timlin (Byrne, 79 mins), Cawley, Kelly, B Dennehy; Fagan.
Bohemians: Delany; Pender, Prendergast (Ben Mohamed, 75 mins), Lopes, Best; Wearen, Buckley; Byrne, Quigley (Kelly, 75 mins), Kavanagh; Akinade.
Referee: P Sutton (Dublin).
