Galway humble St Pats with first half blitz
St. Patrick's Athletic's disappointing season reached a nadir in Galway, when they were humbled by a less celebrated but more effective side on the night.
Two unforced errors in the first eleven minutes sealed their fate. However, all metrics would have favoured the home team who were in charge physically and territorially in a bruising opening 30 minutes for the visitors.
Pat's were caught cold with the first. Evan Watts was able to lash a kickout 80 yards that Ed McCarthy picked up on the edge of the box, turned, shot and scored before Joe Redmond or Tom Grivosti could recover.
There was further dysfunction for the second. Joseph Anang was a long way from home when he tried to deliver long. Instead, he smashed it straight off David Hurley who picked it up in his own half on the right and curled beautifully into an empty net.
United kept their foot down and would have hoped for more joy, except for some good scrambling from Anang and errant finishing.
There were some flashes of the underlying excellence of the away team. Mason Melia brought the best from Watts before Simon Power beat him in the corner.
When Rob Slevin extended the lead again to 3-1 shortly after, it was no less than his side deserved.
Pat's improved after the break. Power was prominent on the right. Sean Hoare and Jamie Lennon reasserted some control. The latter even came close from the edge of the area.
The Pat's bench were up in arms, thinking the impressive Melia was wrongly denied a penalty at a time that could really mattered.
Hoare, Chris Forrester and Brandon Kavanagh all came off the bench in a bid to salvage something.
There was plenty of possession, some neat interplay but few chances.
Kavanagh, who has broken Galway hearts before with a free-kick when with Bray, lined up a few dangerous free-kicks from the edge of the box.
The second drew a second incredible save from the Welsh youngster who then pulled off another cracking stop from Hoare.
The heroics gave Stephen Kenny an out to point out the heroics of the 'keeper. However, he is seasoned enough to know that the problems run deeper with his side and he has a job on to turn it around in time for Derry on Monday.
GALWAY UNITED: Watts; Esua, Buckley, Slevin, Cunningham (Burns 81); Hurley (McCormack 90), Borden (Walsh 90), Byrne, Hickey, McCarthy (Brouder 90); Dyer (Shaw 70)
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Anang; Sjoberg (Kavanagh 70), Redmond, Grivosti (Hoare 45), McLelland; Elbouzedi, Lennon, Baggley (Carty 82), Power; Melia, Keena (Forrester 70)
Ref: R Harvey
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