Kevin Toner cancelled out Jack Keaney’s opener as Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic played out a draw at the Showgrounds. Against a Sligo team without a number of key players due to injury, suspension and even international commitments, Pat’s h
Kevin Toner cancelled out Jack Keaney’s opener as Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic played out a draw at the Showgrounds. Against a Sligo team without a number of key players due to injury, suspension and even international commitments, Pat’s had the better of the early play. Dave Webster couldn’t hook his early opportunity over Ed McGinty’s head, while Kevin Toner’s cross bounced off the top of the Rovers goal shortly after. Sligo took time to settle into this one and Ronan Coughlan had Saints goalkeeper Brendan Clarke on his toes 16 minutes in. The Rovers attacker cutting inside but Clarke was alert to swipe the ball from Coughlan at the end line. Pat’s raised their play once more and went close twice in quick succession through Ciaran Kelly and Gary Shaw. Kelly wriggling free of the Sligo defence at a Mikey Drennan corner, but the centre half couldn’t steer his free header goalward. While Shaw’s clever turn allowed him space to shoot from the edge of the area, but his rasper cracked back off the crossbar with McGinty beaten. Pat’s were able to scramble away a Lewis Banks header from a Cawley corner just after the restart. The oncoming Clarke then did just enough to put off Parkes, after good work from both Fordyce and Ronan Murray in the build up. Drennan should have had Pat’s in the lead on 62. But he somehow ballooned the ball over the crossbar from directly under it, after sustained pressure following a Saints corner. McGinty had to tip Shaw’s header over his goal with a quarter of an hour to go, as this game hung in the balance. The game’s opener eventually arrived when Keaney’s free-kick from 30 yards, took a touch off a number of players before the ball finally making its way past a flat-footed Clarke. The lead lasted less than a minute however. Shaw’s initial header came back off McGinty’s far post, but the danger wasn’t cleared as the ball landed to the waiting Toner who fired an unstoppable volley to the Sligo net.
