LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION Shamkrock Rovers 1 St Patrick's Ath 3:THEY MAY have no manager at the moment, but captain Aidan Price believes Shamrock Rovers are in a better state than any League of Ireland club in the country ahead of their long-awaited move to a new stadium in Tallaght next season.
"It's been difficult the last week or so, but that's football," said Price on the departure of manager Pat Scully.
"I can't speak badly about Pat. He did lay foundations. He brought us up from the First Division and kept us in the Premier.
"Times change. It's the perfect opportunity for a new manager to come in and bring us on to the next level as players, as a group and as a club.
"We're now really looking forward to going into the new stadium next year. I think when you look at the state of some clubs, they are having it difficult at the moment.
"But we're not in that situation. We're doing things professionally. The board have been really good. It's easy for a manager to come in and say I want €30,000 or €40,000 a week to pay players. But that doesn't work.
"They know what they want and we know what we want. At the end of the day, it comes down to football. We want to win games.
"We were disappointed to lose on Saturday. Pat's are second in the league, yet we feel that on our first-half performance we have to step that up for 90 minutes.
"That's the next step for us. To bridge that gap with the top four. They have that little bit of an edge on us at the moment. We feel with the stadium, the young players we have at the club, we're on the up."
Ryan Guy said it was a dream come true to score his first hat-trick as St Patrick's turned this game on its head.
A Damian Lynch own goal, when he deflected John Martin's shot to the net on 20 minutes, had given Rovers a deserved lead in a first half they dominated under caretaker manager Jim Crawford.
But St Patrick's stormed back into the match after the break with Guy driving home the equaliser within three minutes.
Gary Dempsey put Guy in on goal to put St Patrick's in front on 72 minutes before completing his hat-trick six minutes later when heading home Keith Fahey's cross.
"It's what you dream about," said Guy. "Every night going to bed, you want to get a hat-trick tomorrow.
"We needed to win, we needed the three points to solidify second and confirm European qualification for next year.
"We had been going through a rough patch since our European run and it's a win we really needed."
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Murphy; O'Brien, Maguire, Price, Madden; Martin (Flynn, 67 mins), D O'Connor, Rice, S O'Connor; Amond, Doyle (Leech, 83 mins).
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC:Barry Ryan; Lynch, Gavin, Harris, Rogers; Guy, Fahey, Dempsey, O'Brien (G Fitzpatrick, 80 mins); Kirby; Quigley (Partridge, h/t).
Referee:Anthony Buttimer (Cork).
