ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC 3
SLIGO ROVERS 0
Stephen Doyle at Richmond Park
Aaron Green bagged a brace against the team with whom he won two FAI Cup medals and who deservedly had the result hammered home against them by a late Chris Forrester strike.
St Patrick's Athletic grabbed the reins from the start and caused Sligo Rovers a lot of problems down the left wing which is where Greene's goals would originate but the Bit O'Red were given a good warning after just 7 minutes.
Forrester pushed the ball out wide to Greene who sneaked in off the left before chipping the ball first time into the middle where Conan Byrne was loitering but he headed the ball right at goalkeeper Richard Brush.
The Saints attack play and decoy runs were too much for Sligo whose defence looked far from solid and the arrival of an opening goal was only a matter of time.
Again from the left, Ian Bermingham in oceans of space and just inside the opposition half hit a long high ball into the box and Greene was there to head it in from close range without any defensive pressure.
The lead would have been doubled if it had not been for the quick reflexes of Brush who got down to push away a rocketed effort from Greene just after the half hour mark.
Sligo rarely got forward throughout the game but when they did four minutes later young goalkeeper Conor O'Malley, who has kept Brendan Clarke out after he recovered from an ankle injury, pulled off a great save.
The visitors worked the ball across from their left wing as Morten Nielsen slipped it inside to Keith Ward, who in turn found skipper David Cawley and his pile driver was tipped brilliantly onto the bar by O'Malley.
Ciaran Kilduff rightly had a goal disallowed 4 minutes before the break when he bundled home a good Ger O'Brien cross but with the aid of his hand and he was booked for the offence.
The big striker probably should have had a penalty when he was bundled over in the Sligo box just after the restart and while it looked like defender Gary Boylan had his hands all over his opponent, the referee waved it away.
Yet again Sligo's ignorance to the dangers from the hosts' left wing was their downfall as Greene latched on to a Forrester pass from midfield out wide before cutting into the box and firing the ball underneath Brush into the far corner.
With just over five minutes left to play Forrester scored the goal to seal the win, a powerful drive from the edge of the box, and it would have pushed them into fourth if Bohemians had not nicked a late winner at the Brandywell.
St Patrick's Athletic: O'Malley, O'Brien (C) (McCormack 74), Hoare, Browne (Desmond 86), Bermingham, Bolger, Byrne, Brennan (Chambers 70), Forrester, Greene, Kilduff. Substitutes: Clarke, McGuinness, Langley, McGrath.
Sligo Rovers: Brush, Keane, Ledwith (Cretaro 61), Folan, Cawley (C), Puri, Boylan, Dykes, Ward (Armstrong 61), Nielsen, Beattie. Substitutes: Coulter, Corcoran, Wearen, McManus.
