A Colm Foley header on 79 minutes was enough to keep St Patrick's Athletic top of the eircom League of Ireland Premier Division table following a 1-0 win over second placed Drogheda United at Richmond Park.
The gap is now five points after this top of the table 'six-pointer' but vitally Drogs have played one game less.
A phrase often used by the legendary former RTÉ soccer commentator Philip Greene 'it was a game of two halves' would accurately some up this game.
The first half was atrocious stuff altogether during stages but it sprang to life in the second half with excellent passages of play and some particularly good individual performances on both sides.
The top two in the country had plenty of possession in the opening minutes with with Drogs net minder Miko Vilmunen getting down well to deny Pat's Sean O'Connor after two minutes.
Pat's goalkeeper Barry Ryan then made a good block from Stuart Byrne's shot on seven minutes after ref Damien Hancock played advantage after Eamon Zayed was tackled just outside the box.
Zayed was then harshly ruled offside on 17 minutes having found himself with the ball 18 yards out following a decent passage of play that had started out with Vilmunen and encompassed several Drogs players before reaching Zayed.
The momentum was with Drogs by now and Ollie Cahill went close with his shot on 23 minutes after good work by Zayed but he saw his shot go wide.
It was still all Drogs for the rest of the half but Pat's came out fighting in the second half and Stephen Paisley went sent a header from a Keith Fahey free kick just wide on 48 minutes.
There then followed a ten-minute spell were St Pat's bombarded the Drogs goal with attack after attack. The pick of them a header from Michael Foley on 56 minutes that needed a tremendous save by Vilmunen.
After that there was an action packed period of end to end football.
On the hour, Shane Robinson picked out Glen Fitzpatrick with an inch-perfect pass but Darragh Maguire nipped in to deny Fitzpatrick. The action then quickly switched to the other end where a Fahey strike went just wide.
Back at the Pat's goalmouth, Paisley blocked a Robinson shot that looked goal bound.
On 65, Mark Quigley sent in a cracker of a shot for Pat's that Vilmunen blocked and then fumbled but the danger was averted before the inrushing Gary O'Neill could do any damage.
Fahey had the Pat’s fans on their feet on 71 minutes when they thought his 35-yard free kick had found the net but it had gone wide and ruffled the back of the netting.
Drogs' recent injury crisis worsened when Ollie Cahill limped off injured on 76 minutes.
Out of nothing Pat’s then took the lead through Colm Foley on 79 minutes following excellent build up play from Fahey and Anthony Murphy.
St Patrick's Athletic: Ryan, Brennan, Maguire, C Foley, Fahey, O'Neill (Guy 89), M Quigley, M Foley (Mulcahy 59), Murphy, O'Connor (Frost 88), Paisley.
Drogheda United: Vilmunen, Lynch, Gray, Gartland, Robinson, Fitzpatrick (Grant 71), Shelly, Bradley (Keegan 83), Byrne, Zayed, Cahill (Whelan 76).
Referee: Damien Hancock (Dub).
