KELLY FULL OF TRICKS FOR LILIES AS SAINTS DENY BUCKLEY

DANIEL KELLY ripped Finn Harps apart at Oriel Park last night with a first hat-trick of his career to make it back-to-back league wins for Dundalk. It capped a good week for the Ringsend man who on Monday came off the bench to win a crucial 95th-minute penalty against his former club Bohemians. The first half was heavily disrupted by two serious looking injuries to Dundalk captain Brian Gartland and Finn Harps goalkeeper Ciaran Gallagher, which resulted in nine minutes being added on at the end of the half. It was in the second minute of stoppage time that the breakthrough arrived as Kelly rifled home the opener from the edge of the box. Kelly then doubled his side’s lead 100 seconds into the second half when he latched onto a loose ball to fire home. The hat-trick would duly arrive on 83 minutes when he fired past Peter Burke. DUNDALK: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland (Cleary 13), Hoare, Massey; Shields, McEleney (McKee 71); D Kelly, McGrath, Duffy (Mountney 80); Hoban. Scorer: Kelly 45, 47, 82 FINN HARPS: C Gallagher (Burke 28); Kavanagh, Cowan, Todd, O’Reilly; McAleer, McNamee, Cretaro (Boyd 56), Coyle (M Gallagher 74), Boyle; Place. Referee: R Harvey (Dublin). JAMES ROGERS A WEEK that began with abject defeat to Derry City ended sweetly for St Patrick’s Athletic as they capped the news that they look likely to be playing in the Europa League with a deserved victory. A moment of opportunism from Chris Forrester sparked the game to life on 15 minutes — pouncing on a mistake by Sligo defender John Mahon, Forrester nonchalantly lobbed the ball over ‘keeper Mitchell Beeney for his first goal for the club since his return. Further sloppy defending cost Sligo a second goal on 24 minutes. Mikey Drennan got away to cut past Mahon only for the young defender to clumsily bring him down inside the area. Drennan calmly sent Beeney the wrong way from 12 yards. Sligo skipper David Cawley grabbed the consolation. PAUL BUTTNER ALAN REYNOLDS insists Waterford will bounce back from their shock Europa League expulsion. Second-half goals from Shane Duggan and Zack Elbouzedi at the RSC to beat Cork City at least temporarily lifted the sense of gloom. ‘I still can’t believe the decision but this city was forgotten in the recession and we’ll be back,’ said a defiant Reynolds. Garry Buckley had a goal disallowed for offside on the half-hour but Cork were second-best thereafter. With Cork retreating, Duggan was given too much time 20 yards out to shimmy past his marker and unleash a shot which zipped beyond Mark McNulty with 15 minutes left. Elbouzedi then showed his pace in stoppage time by darting all the way up the pitch to stroke the ball past the advancing McNulty. JOHN FALLON