David Webster was the hero as St. Patrick's Athletic came away with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Sligo Rovers at Richmond Park on Friday night. The game took a while to spring into life and the crowd had to wait until the 20th minute for the first
St. Patrick's Athletic returned to winning ways with a 2-1 win over Sligo Rovers at Richmond Park on Friday night.
Sligo started brightly with Ronan Coughlan firing a sixth-minute shot at Brendan Clarke in the Saints goal. The deadlock was broken ten minutes later when Saints' Chris Forrester effortlessly controlled a loose ball on his chest before hitting a looping volley over Sligo keeper Mitchell Beeney.
It was Forrester's first league goal for Saints since he returned from Aberdeen earlier this year. On 25 minutes, the lead was doubled after Mikey Drennan was brought down for a penalty. The Saints striker dusted himself off to fire home his fourth league goal of the campaign.
Sligo began the second half positively with Romeo Parkes attempting a volley of his own from 30 yards only to see it go over the bar. On the hour, Saints' Conor Clifford powered a shot at goal from outside the box but it was also too high to find the net.
Forrester came close to doubling his tally but this time his shot went over before Gary Shaw's header hit the crossbar with 10 minutes to go. In the 89th minute, David Cawley took advantage of some sloppy Saints defending to pull one back for Sligo, setting up a tense finish to the game.
Pat's were able to hold on though and record their fourth win of the Premier Division season. They remain in fifth place and travel to bottom side Finn Harps on Monday. It was an unhappy return to Inchicore for Sligo manager Liam Buckley and his side remain in eighth position, level on points with Cork City.
The two sides will meet at Turner's Cross in three days time.
