BILLY, DO BE A HERO
King leaves it until last minute to clinch victory for Saints
BILLY KING hit a 90th-minute winner to give St Pat’s a laboured first win of the season as they were pushed to their limits by newlypromoted Drogheda at Richmond Park.
The result was harsh on the visitors, who thought they had done more than enough for a share of the spoils after Dinny Corcoran had equalised Ronan Coughlan’s opener.
On the pitch scarcely a minute, Corcoran punished a spill by St Pat’s goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros in the 68th minute to stab home following Mark Doyle’s cross.
But in a late St Pat’s onslaught, Coughlan shot against a post before the ball was recycled by Darragh Burns to cross superbly for fellow substitute King to volley home at the back post.
‘We were on the right side of it this time after conceding a late equaliser [against Shamrock Rovers] last week,’ said St Pat’s head coach Stephen O’Donnell.
‘I’m delighted to get the win against a good Drogheda team. We were in control from the start of the second half, for the first 20 minutes, when we went 1-0 up.
‘Then out of nowhere we conceded and that seemed to rock us a little bit. But to stay going right to the death was great.
‘Darragh Burns showing great composure to dispossess the defender and pick out Billy was a great goal to win it.’
St Pat’s started on the front foot, pressing Drogheda from the off and they should have been ahead on seven minutes.
Chris Forrester swept a perfectly weighted ball to Matty Smith who cleverly pushed in past Conor Kane to get in behind. But the winger’s composure deserted him, as he blasted his shot wastefully wide.
Well-organised and tenacious, Drogheda created the first effort on target on nine minutes.
Chris Lyons got on the end of a deep free-kick from goalkeeper David Odumosu to play the ball wide left to Doyle, whose shot was straight at Jaros.
Dominant from the restart, St Pat’s skipper Robbie Benson missed the proverbial sitter before the home side’s pressure finally brought reward on 59 minutes. Despite Drogheda appealing for play to be stopped with midfielder Markey down injured, Ian Bermingham fed Jay McClelland on the left to cross for Coughlan to finish from close range.
st PatrICk’s athLetIC: Jaros; Mountney, Bone, Desmond, Griffin (Bermingham 45+1); Forrester, Lennon; McClelland (Burns, 71), Benson (King, 80), Smith; Coughlan. droGheda unIted: Odumosu; Brown, O’Reilly, Massey, Kane; Deegan, Hyland (Douglas, 90+3); Murray, Markey (Bermingham, 67), Doyle; Lyons (Corcoran, 67). referee: John McLoughlin (Roscommon).