St Patrick's Athletic manager Jon Daly was pleased with what he saw as his side ground out a 2-0 win over Bohemians in difficult conditions at Dalymount Park on Friday night.
On an evening when Shamrock Rovers' fixture at home to Drogheda United fell victim to the weather, the Saints took full advantage by moving to within three points of the leaders thanks to second-half goals from Mark Doyle and Conor Carty.
The 4,084 people who turned out in the rain saw the hosts dominate a lot of the play, but it was the visitors who took their chances.
"I wouldn't call it a smash-and-grab but I think in the second half we had large spells of control," Daly told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"I thought when we scored the goal we grew and I thought we looked really good.
"In the first half, the conditions pinned us back. We dealt with a lot of corners and I think it's a very, very good result for us and we're obviously very pleased."
Daly praised the performance of both goalkeepers, with his own Dean Lyness pulling off a number of important stops to keep Bohs at bay.
"Dean made a couple of good saves in the first half," said Daly of the Englishman. "[James] Talbot's save was probably better if I'm honest, one-on-one with [Chris] Forrester going through. Ninety-nine times out of 100, I'd normally see Forrester stick that in the back of the net.
"Dean's ones were good saves, the free kick on his side, you'd probably expect him to save it, and the header from McDonnell, were the two saves that I recall.
"Mark Doyle had the chance when he went through and shot past the post. As much as they had the ball in the first half, I thought we had some good chances as well. It was a good three points and it gets us closer to where we want to be."
Daly was particularly pleased that his side managed to win in such difficult conditions, and he highlighted that they were helped by Forrester playing in a more reserved role than usual.
"The wind was swirling, it was difficult to manage, it was difficult to predict where the ball was going to go, and I thought in the first half they picked up a lot more second balls than we did. We did a bit better with that in the second half, which I felt gave us a bit more passages of play in their half.
"I thought Forrester was different class, he played a bit deeper today and I thought he was magnificent doing a lot of the stuff that he's not renowned for. Him and [Jamie] Lennon were very good in there."
The Shamrock Rovers v Drogheda United game has been re-fixed for this Sunday, a day before St Pat's host Sligo Rovers in their next game.
If things go their way on both nights, then Daly's men would have the opportunity to overtake Rovers at the top of the table, when the two sides meet at Richmond Park next Friday night.
"We'll focus on ourselves and make sure we do our own business and try and get the points on the board to keep ourselves on their coat tails for as long as possible," added Daly, on the possibility of reeling in Stephen Bradley's men on the Premier Division home straight.
