Kenny praises Forrester impact after impressive Dundalk victory

St. Patrick's Athletic manager Harry Kenny couldn't hide his delight after his side's 1-0 victory over champions Dundalk at Richmond Park on Friday night. 

A Daniel Cleary own goal secured victory for the Saints, ending a run of three successive league defeats and Kenny felt the win was thoroughly deserved.

"I'm thrilled with the win especially to beat the champions," he said. "I thought we deserved to win the game tonight because we worked really hard." 

Cleary's own goal came from a Rhys McCabe cross and Kenny felt that both McCabe and Chris Forrester were very impressive on the night.

"Rhys started the season very well and then had a little bit of a lull but he was back at it tonight. Chris is only starting to be properly fit now. He played very well in the free role behind Gary Shaw tonight. He created things and worked very hard for us."

The winning goal was only Pat's fourth in the league in eight games this season, with the previous three having been scored by the suspended Mikey Drennan. Kenny was pleased that his side managed to find the net in spite of Drennan's absence.

"You're always going to miss a player of his calibre and a goalscorer of his calibre but thankfully we got a goal tonight. We were due a bit of luck because against Bohs last week we had the ball for 20 or 25 minutes and couldn't score. It was the exact same thing against Waterford."

Next up for the Saints is a trip to Cork City, who have experienced a difficult start to the season themselves. Kenny feels that the victory over Dundalk came just at the right time ahead of a busy month which will see them play six more games before the end of April. 

"We needed that. There's an awful lot of games coming up so it's nice to kick start it like this."

Cork City will host Pat's on Friday April 12th with a kick-off time of 7.45pm.