Sligo Rovers 0-3 St Patrick's Athletic
St Patrick's Athletic moved to within four points of second-placed Cork City in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division with a comfortable 3-0 win over Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds.
A second-half brace from Chris Forrester paired with a Jamie McGrath strike did the damage and saw the hosts slump to their eleventh league defeat of the season.
The Dublin side signalled their intent early on. Killian Brennan swept his left-footed effort narrowly wide from an Aaron Greene cross on three minutes, while Rovers goalkeeper Richard Brush did well to steal the ball from the feet of Conan Byrne five minutes later.
Boylan's speculative shot from distance on 11 was the closest the Bit O'Red came to finding a first-half goal; Saints netminder Brendan Clarke happy to watch the ball roll wide of his far post.
Brennan's free from wide had Brush at sixes and sevens on ten. The Birmingham native was lucky to see the winger's bending effort crack the crossbar.
The home side were living life dangerously and were lackadaisical in possession. 25 minutes had elapsed when Keith Ward lost out to James Chambers in the middle of the field before the latter played the ball into the path of Forrester. Ward's clumsy tackle upended Forrester before Brennan hit the woodwork once more with his viciously struck set-piece.
Sligo have struggled with injuries to vital players this year. Their woes were furthered just before the break when Estonian winger Sander Puri was forced off with what looked like a thigh injury while Pat's had to withdraw former Rover Jason McGuinness, who came off the worst in a challenge with Brush. Debutant Ian Morris replaced him.
McGrath flashed wide on 57 before Brush did well to touch over Ger O'Brien's shot from 20 yards as the Saints looked to press in the final third.
The inevitable opener came on 62. With a host of bodies in front of him, Forrester went for the jugular and his low shot from the edge of the Rovers box took the slightest of touches off Sligo substitute Ruairi Keating before sneaking past an already committed Brush.
McGrath doubled the lead and effectively sealed the points for the Saints on 72. Finding space amongst a disorganised Sligo defence, the young striker rifled the ball towards the bottom corner of Brush's net.
Rovers looked like a beaten outfit for the remainder of this game and Pat's caught their opponents out once more on 84 to make it three.
A quick break from Conan Byrne caught a ragged Sligo back four unawares and with just Brush to beat, the midfielder squared for the unmarked Forrester, who was left with the simplest of tasks.
Sligo Rovers: Richard Brush; Alan Keane, Gavin Peers, Raffaele Cretaro; Sander Puri (for Ruairi Keating 45), David Cawley, Gary Boylan, Keith Ward, Liam Flatley (for Jake Dykes 55), Danny Ledwith (for Ryan McManus 68); Gary Armstrong.
St Patrick's Athletic: Brendan Clarke; Ger O'Brien, Jason McGuinness (for Ian Morris 45 +3), Lee Desmond, Ian Bermingham; Chris Forrester (for Sam Verdon 87), James Chambers, Conan Byrne, Killian Brennan (for 74); Aaron Greene; Jamie McGrath.
Referee: Graham Kelly
