St Patrick's stand firm as new era starts tamely

THEY CAME to herald Cork's second incarnation of the season - and about their 2,002nd all told - but for all their huffing and puffing, Rob Hindmarch's side couldn't reward the 4,000 Turner's Cross loyalists by blowing down the impenetrable St Patrick's house.

Less resilient sides might have buckled, but not St Patrick's - not even a below par St Patrick's. From the start, the league leaders were clearly unfazed. It may have been an abnormal day, but it was a strictly ordinary match, as St Patrick's generally succeeded in extracting the sting from the occasion.

The celebrities and VIPs were in on the act, and one half expected the new consortium, along with the National League president Michael Hyland and the mastermind behind this very Irish footballing coup, FAI treasurer Joe Delaney, to arrive in a horse and chariot.

The psychological fillip was there for the home side from the start as, to add to the sense of occasion, the teams lined up for the attendant Minister of Sport Bernard Allen TD, before a congested Shed end which may have been intoxicated by more than the atmosphere.

They were in full voice throughout and, accordingly Cork played passionately, competing for every loose ball - in a scrappy affair they were legion - with an extra bite in the tackle.

At times, it seemed as if they and the crowd wanted a good scrap, but St Patrick's kept their discipline impressively. Hence, while the game continually simmered, it only fleetingly came to the boil.

Hindmarch gambled on midweek, 18-year-old recruit from Arsenal, Tony Connolly. Hindsight being 20-20 vision, it would not be unreasonable to suggest it failed. Though John Caulfield worked the line tirelessly and looked, the likeliest match-winner, his regular side-kick Pat Morley, scourge of St Patrick's on so many occasions, was withdrawn to an attacking midfield role.

Brian Kerr was none too displeased. "The further away from our goal the better," he said, recalling the damage of times past when Morley was in his most effective area - the penalty area. Morley tried to uncork the occasionally square St Patrick's defence with an audacious pass, but that isn't his game really.

St Patrick's had no Eddie Gormley to unhinge Cork (nor did their set-piece game ever get going in his absence), and with no Ricky O'Flaherty to do his Mark Hughes bit up front, often the ball came back quicker than it went forward. Without their two leading scorers, St Patrick's rarely looked like averting their first blank in 21 outings.

The game cried out for a goal and pined out for some passing along the deck as a variation to the passages of aerial ping-pong. In mitigation, the narrowness of the pitch and the uneven bounce of the ball on a poor surface didn't help.

Kerr even defended Bishopstown as a comparatively, superior football ground. "When it was good, it was very good," he said. "There was a fair bit of tension. They were keyed up, big time. There wasn't an awful lot of rhythm to our game, but I'm reasonably satisfied."

St Patrick's had more of the hall, if little penetration. Willie Burke, Paul Campbell and Martin Reilly supplied an array of crosses from the right, but Johnny Glynn won little from the enduringly consistent Dave Hill. Too often Glynn was isolated, while the support from midfield dried up as the visitors kept risks to a minimum.

However, their use of the offside trap left them dangerously square to Cork's innumerable balls over the top, especially those Staunton-like inswingers clipped in by Gareth Cronin's trusty left boot.

The tireless Caulfield chested one down one after 17 minutes and ran into space, but under-hit his drive straight at Gareth Byrne with his weaker left foot. Caulfield headed down another Cronin cross after 32 minutes, but Dave Campbell bravely dived in to block Kelvin Flanagan's first drive, while the second drifted into the side-netting.

That was about as exciting as it got, and clearer than anything St Patrick's generated in a suffocating first-half. But the chances fairly flowed in the first 15 minutes or so of the second, when Cork turned around and faced the Shed.

Gareth Byrne clutched a header from Morley, before an overstretched Caulfield headed wide from a gilt-edged Cronin centre. At the other end, Paul Campbell failed to control a pull-back from Reilly, who then hurriedly shot at Jody Byrne when in the clear. Ending this breathless sequence, Gareth Byrne stretched his fingers to take the ball away from Morley's toes as he was being rounded.

Cork had a couple of penalty claims, too, the more vocal when Gareth Byrne denied Caulfield. Less plausible were the claims after Dave Campbell appeared to push Flanagan. But the storm subsided as swiftly as it was whipped up, and St Patrick's held on to their point without too much nail-biting.

In paying tribute to their more numerous support, Hindmarch regretted that Cork "couldn't get the goal they (the fans) deserved. Early in the second-half we were like a house on fire. That was the time to score.