Eamon Collins’ St Patrick’s Athletic are on course for a Cup double this season and the club’s first FAI Cup success since 1961 after a pulsating 4-3 extra-time Carlsberg Cup semi-final replay win over Bohemians at Richmond Park.
Incredibly six of the seven goals were given their final touches to the net by Bohemians players, but crucially it was Keith Fahey’s brilliantly struck free kick in the seventh minute of extra-time which was the difference between the sides.
Pat’s, starting with the same line-up as that which rescued a draw at Dalymount Park on Sunday, got off to the best possible start. Having won a free kick on the edge of the Bohemians’ area, Keith Fahey whipped a crisp ball into the danger area and unfortunately for the visitors’ defender Ken Oman deflected the spinning ball past goalkeeper Seamus Kelly and into the Gypsies’ net.
Stephen Kenny’s side didn’t panic and equalised just twelve minutes later. Out of nothing Thomas Heary, playing out of position in midfield, silenced the home crowd. He latched onto a loose header by Charles Mbabzi Livingstone, thirty yards out, and slammed a low drive beyond keeper Chris Adamson to level it at 1-1 apiece.
On 23 minutes Robbie Doyle's slip through saw Bohs' midfielder Fergal Harkin stretch Adamson into a fine save and as the rebound fell to Dave Morrison, the Pat's keeper regrouped and palmed the Bohs' midfielder's shot to safety.
With Bohs evidently coming more and more into the game, two minutes before the break Doyle showed his strength to muscle Barry Prenderville off the ball and make Adamson get down to save from 20 yards out.
Kenny’s men continued to up the tempo in the second period with Morrison shooting wide from a good position on 52 minutes. The same player headed wide five minutes later from a right wing Doyle cross before Pat’s introduced former UCD and West Ham defender Clive Delaney into the fray.
Just approaching the hour mark, the busy Doyle hit a right-footed free kick inches wide of Adamson’s right post from 25 yards, but the anguished striker needn’t have worried as in the 68th minute he burst onto a ball over the top of the Pat’s defence to hold off Delaney and hammer Bohs into the lead from eight yards.
Pat’s were suddenly sprung into action as Bohs sat back a little too much. Delaney turned from villain to hero in the 77th minute as a Pat’s corner floated onto his head and the unfortunate Doyle, tracking back, stuck out a foot to guide the downward header into the Bohs’ net.
An end-to-end cup-tie nearly took another turn eight minutes before the end of normal time as Doyle thumped a low shot from the right edge of the Pat’s area across the six-yard box.
Just two minutes into extra-time and Collins’ League Cup winners hit the lead, 3-2. A rifled cross from the Bohs’ end line by Tony Bird was misdirected into his own net by tired centre-half Colin Hawkins.
Up stepped midfielder Fahey five minutes later to flight Pat’s into a two-goal lead with his free kick, before Fergal Harkin set up defender Damien Lynch in the Pat’s six-yard box to head the reigning league champions back into contention. But for a club who’ve reached the semi-final stage for the past five years, it was unfortunately their last goal of the game, as Pat’s now join Longford Town, the team they beat in August’s League Cup final, in the final at Lansdowne Road in over two weeks’ time.
Filed by Mark O'Neill-Cummins
