Somebody was smiling on St. Patrick's Athletic, for the moment at least, as they went top of the Premier Division table with this smash-and-grab win at Oriel Park last night.
Charles Mbabazi Livingstone, their Ugandan international, and substitute Gavin Doyle provided the goals for the visitors in a match from which Dundalk will be bitterly disappointed they got nothing.
Initially, the St Patrick's goal was living a charmed life with Shay Kelly working hard to keep an almost rampant Dundalk at bay. Kelly got down well to hold a Jonathan Prizeman shot on 32 minutes before spreading himself to parry a Ger Robinson effort at his left-hand post. Kelly then really earned his corn two minutes later with a superb one-hand stop from Prizeman's well struck drive from over 20 yards.
St Patrick's seized the lead, however, in the 38th minute when from Martin Russell's corner, Paul Osam's header was cleared off the line but Mbabazi put away the loose ball.
Dundalk, much more positive than they were in the 5-1 defeat to Bray on Friday night, maintained their impetus into the second half and the woodwork came to St Patrick's rescue within six minutes as David Ward, through from Donal Broughan's ball over the top, shot against an upright.
Dundalk's revival hopes suffered a telling blow on 66 minutes when Stephen McGuinness was sent-off for a second yellow-card offence for a foul on Mbabazi.
Substitute Doyle then killed off the game on 81 minutes when collecting Liam Kelly's pass to drill the ball under John Connolly. Kelly almost added a third in the final minute when cracking an angled shot off the crossbar.
DUNDALK: Connolly; Hoey, Broughan, McGuinness, Crawley; Flanagan, Prizeman, Kavanagh, Keddy; Ward, Robinson. Subs: Reilly for Robinson (56 mins.), Lawless for Kavanagh (78 mins.).
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: S Kelly; Croly, Maguire, C Foley, Burke; Mbabazi, Russell, Osam, Mannion; McCarthy, L Kelly. Subs: Doyle and Marney for McCarthy and Mannion (both 54 mins), Harris for Mbabazi (80 mins).
Referee: J McDermott (Dublin).
