St Patrick's Athletic 4 Waterford United 1:St Patrick's Athletic returned to winning ways at Inchicore last night with Keith Barker coming off the bench to score twice in the last 10 minutes.

The home side got off to the perfect start on nine minutes when Keith Fahey, after taking a pass from Mark Quigley, beat the keeper with a splendid chip from outside the box.

It was Fahey's first goal in the league and was the perfect tonic for St Pat's fans after last week's humiliation against Longford.

St Pat's came close to a second on 18 minutes when Stephen Paisley's flick-down from a John Frost cross arrived to Billy Gibson on the edge of the penalty area. Gibson hit his effort first time but Dean Delaney was on hand to clear off the line.

Cameroon international Ndo was involved in the second goal on 38 minutes when his inch-perfect pass found Quigley unattended inside the penalty area. And Quigley did not hang about when beating the keeper with a low, crisp shot.

But Waterford were back in business on 50 minutes when Robbie Hedderman with his first touch of the ball beat the keeper with a well directed header into the left-hand corner.

However, the introduction of Keith Barker with 10 minutes remaining was to finally kill off Waterford chances.

A slip-up at the back allowed Barker to fire past the stranded keeper with his first touch of the ball on 82 minutes.

And three minutes later, Barker took a pass from Ndo and beat Delaney with a low shot.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Ryan; Gibson, Paisley, Rogers, Frost; Fahey, Ndo, Keane, Kirby; Fitzpatrick, Quigley. Subs: O'Neill for Quigley (60 mins), Barker for Fitzpatrick (80 mins).

WATERFORD UNITED: Delaney; Flynn, Breen, Brosnan, Kearney; McCarthy, Warren, Scully, Kavanagh; Bermingham, Sullivan. Subs: Hedderman for Kavanagh (46 mins), WJ Kiely for Bermingham (55 mins), Lordon for Scully (60 mins).

Referee: D Tomney (Dublin).