Soccer

St Patrick’s Athletic top the table after first-half brace sees off Galway United

Results elsewhere go in Saints’ favour with Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers held to draws

Ryan McLaughlin of St Patrick's Athletic and Robert Burns of Galway United tussle for possession last night in Inchicore. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inchicore
Ryan McLaughlin of St Patrick's Athletic and Robert Burns of Galway United tussle for possession last night in Inchicore. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inchicore
Daire Walsh at Richmond Park
Fri May 02 2025 - 22:26
Premier Division: St Patrick’s Athletic 2 Galway United 0

Kian Leavy and Zachary Elbouzedi grabbed first-half goals at Richmond Park last night as St Patrick’s Athletic moved to the top of the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division table with a 2-0 win over Galway United.

The Saints team for this game showed two changes from their last-gasp defeat to Dublin rivals Bohemians seven days earlier with former Galway loan player Al Amin Kazeem and the fit-again Aidan Keena drafted into the starting line-up.

There were also a couple of alterations to the Galway side following their excellent 2-1 win at home to Drogheda United on April 25 – Garry Buckley and Stephen Walsh coming into the first 11 as replacements for Greg Cunningham and Vincent Borden respectively.

While Stephen Kenny’s hosts were on top of possession during the opening quarter of the game, Galway attacker Moses Dyer headed marginally over the crossbar off an enticing cross in the 15th minute. Leavy had an effort that drifted off-target at the opposite end of the pitch, before St Pat’s received a significant lay-off just shy of the half-hour mark.

READ MORE

Although Dyer got on the end of a byline delivery from the raiding Jeannot Esua on the right-hand side, his connection wasn’t strong to deny Saints’ goalkeeper Joseph Anang saving the ball on the line.

Having breathed a sigh of relief in the wake of this missed opportunity for the Tribesmen, the St Pat’s faithful were subsequently in full voice when their team swiftly opened the scoring on 32 minutes. After breaking impressively into the box off the back of some neat link-up play with Keena, Leavy fired a low shot to the net through the legs of ex-Saints’ custodian Brendan Clarke.

This provided fresh impetus to the Pat’s play and their lead was doubled seven minutes before the interval when an ambitious strike from Elbouzedi took a wicked deflection off Galway’s Robert Slevin on its way into the bottom left-hand corner.

The Saints brought a 2-0 cushion into the second half as a consequence, but they were offered a stark warning on the restart that the three points from this contest weren’t yet secured. From a 52nd-minute free-kick just outside of the St Pat’s penalty area, Galway’s Cian Byrne unleashed a curling shot that rattled the crossbar before floating away to safety.

The spirited Tribesmen were also close to reducing their deficit to the bare minimum when Robert Burns headed an Esua cross just wide of the mark moments later.

Despite still being two goals behind moving into the final quarter, Galway gained a numerical advantage when St Pat’s full back Carl Axel Sjoberg was issued with a second yellow card on 69 minutes.

It had been a feisty second half of action in Inchicore with Saints’ boss Stephen Kenny and his counterpart John Caulfield (as well as the latter’s assistant Ollie Horgan) also finding themselves in referee Robert Harvey’s notebook along with several players from both sides.

Yet even though Galway continued to persevere with their challenge – substitutes Max Wilson and Cillian Tollett both went close for the westerners in the dying minutes of the proceedings – St Pat’s ultimately dug deep with 10 men to claim their sixth victory of the campaign.

Results elsewhere on Friday largely went in favour of the Saints with previous league leaders Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers earning respective 2-2 and 1-1 draws away to Sligo Rovers and Cork City. At The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Michael Duffy and Liam Boyce were on target in a 2-0 success for Derry City over defending champions Shelbourne and Thomas Lonergan struck the winning goal in Waterford’s 2-1 triumph against Bohemians at Dalymount Park.

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Anang; Sjoberg, Hoare, Redmond, Kazeem (Turner, 79 mins); Lennon, Forrester, Leavy; Melia (Carty, 79 mins), Keena (Power, 55 mins), Elbouzedi (McLaughlin, 70 mins).

GALWAY UNITED: Clarke; Esua, Slevin, Brouder, Burns; Buckley (Tollett, 86 mins), Byrne (McCormack, 93 mins), Hurley; Hickey; Walsh (Kerrigan, 33 mins (Wilson, 93 mins)), Dyer.

Referee: R Harvey (Dublin).