Ollie Cahill smashed in a superb hat-trick at Richmond Park tonight as Cork City boss Liam Murphy finally saw his team perform to pre-season expectations at the expense of the Saints.
Cork City have waited a long time to get revenge for the humiliation of the 4-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Pat's in Turner's Cross last season and it was a complete reversal of that game.
St Patrick's, with the strong breeze behind them, started well, smashing the Cork woodwork twice inside 11 minutes, both efforts came from Ugandan Mbazazi Livingstone.
The first came on 10 minutes following a swift move down the left between Martin Russell and Ger McCarthy. Paul Marney's shot was deflected to Livingstone, whose shot in turn was deflected onto a post and out for a corner by Damien O'Rourke.
The crossbar then came to Cork's rescue a minute later when Livingstone took advantage of the blustery wind to whack an excellent, 25-yarder against it.
Within two minutes a route one approach by City brought them the lead. Devine's clearance was flicked on by Stephen O'Flynn and Ollie Cahill scored with a memorable right-foot volley into the roof of Shay Kelly's net from almost 30 yards.
St Patrick's took time to regain their composure, but really should have been level at the break but for the acrobatics of Devine in the Cork nets. The Cork goalkeeper initially made a great one-handed stop to prevent Liam Kelly's skillful volley on the turn from reaching the top corner of his net on 36 minutes. From Livingstone's resultant corner, Devine somehow got his body in the way of Kelly's header from point-blank range.
Former Shel's player Pat Morley missed two chances early in the second-half before Cahill, latching onto a Morley pass, outpaced the home defence to rifle in their second goal on 71 minutes.
Soon after St Patrick's appeared to be given a reprieve as Derek Coughlan deflected a shot from Livingstone into his own net following a Martin Russell corner. The comeback was shortlived however, as Cork again caught the Saints napping with only two minutes remaining.
Fittingly Cahill had the last word as he completed his hat-trick; collecting Morley's pass to finish the easiest of his three goals. That was that for the Saints who have now performed poorly in their last two league games.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: S Kelly; Croly, C Foley, Maguire, Burke; Livingstone, Griffin, Marney, Russell; L Kelly, McCarthy. Subs: O'Keeffe for Croly (66 mins), Doyle for McCarthy (80 mins), Holt for Burke (86 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; Daly, Coughlan, O'Rourke; Carey, Flanagan, O'Grady, Cahill, Horgan; Morley, O'Flynn. Subs: Napier for Daly (41 mins), O'Brien for O'Flynn (half-time).
Referee: E. Barr (Dublin).
View From the Shed
By Dr Nightdub - a Saints fan who posted this on the Saints Message Board
I missed the Derry and UCD games cos of being away on holidays but I just can't believe the team that I last watched in Tolka has descended to what we saw tonight.
The glaringly obvious missing element was Ozo. We simply had no-one with his strength and savvy to boss midfield. Griff and Marney tried but don't have the experience yet, so I won't be too hard on them. What was equally glaringly obvious was that our only midfielder capable of running the game was left wasted wide on the right.
Why on earth Dolo persist in leaving Babaz on the wing when anyone can see that he has a talent for going either side from a central position and was likely to have more impact playing in a position where he could win and use the ball?
Blunder number two: we play into the wind against two centre-halves that have won every single contested header in the first half. We bogged it long. Well no, we tried to, but the bloody wind stopped it from going over the halfway line. I realise wind is a tricky bastard cos you can't see it but you don't have to be a tactical genius to realise the best way to play into it is to keep it low. Even - shock horror - keep it on the ground. But we bogged it long. Pure genius.
Now, answer me this: have we got the biggest number of midfielders in the eircom League from which to choose? Cos by my count, if you count TC playing at right back, I think we used about eight midfielders tonight: Babaz, Rusty, TC, Griff, Marney, Holty, Robbie Doyle, Gavin Doyle. Most teams get by on four, five if you want to go all fancy-dan and play wing-backs, but Dolo is a 4-4-2 man through and through.
I don't blame the players one iota for tonight. Not even for that ridiculous third goal. You can change as much of the personnel as allowed, and use eight midfielders, but if you don't change a tactical approach that isn't working, you get beaten 3-1 at home. Team selection and tactics. Sorry, down to you Dolo.
