St Patrick's Athletic claimed a dramatic 3-2 victory over Cork City at Richmond Park with two injury-time goals but manager Stephen Kenny has little time to savour victory as he prepares for Monday's clash against Shamrock Rovers with a depleted side.
Mason Melia’s superb header had given Stephen Kenny's side a first-half lead, but a Charlie Lyons header and Sean Maguire’s penalty flipped the game on its head in the second half.
Just as Pats looked to be sleepwalking into a third successive defeat, substitute Zak Elbouzedi scored in injury time to level things before crossing to set up Jamie Lennon’s 95th-minute strike.
The win meant that St Pat’s did not loser further ground to league Shamrock Rovers who won 3-1 away to Waterford.
The gap between Rovers and the Saints is now four points and the two sides meet in Tallaght Stadium on Monday in what promises to be a crucial Dublin derby.
However, Kenny will have to shuffle his deck for that game and midfield is becoming a problem for the Saints boss, who will be without several players.
Both Cian Leavy and Joe Redmond picked up injuries against Cork and will have to have late fitness tests while Barry Bagley will be suspended for the trip to Tallaght.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Kenny explained: "Barry Baggley picked up a fifth yellow, so he is suspended.
"In midfield Chris Forester is out, Romal Palmer is out and Barry Bagley. So we've got to be creative with our line-up, because we’ve run out of midfield players.
"We've got to dust ourselves down because we emptied the bench tonight. Two came off injured and the five subs all made a big impact."
Despite their injury worries, Kenny has no intention of going to Rovers and looking for a draw.
"It's not even halfway through the season, I don't think you can think in those terms and we never really set up like that," he said.
"It's not really our style to sit in and defend. We'll have to come up with a strategy to play because Shamrock Rovers over are in great form.
"They've been the form team, obviously, so we have to devise a way of playing in between now and Monday."
For Cork and their new manager Ger Nash, the result was a baptism of fire.
Nash was appointed on Thursday, filling the vacancy left by Tim Clancy's exit last week, and while his first game ended in defeat, he sees plenty of reason for optimism.
" The staff have worked well this week and the effort from the players was terrific," he said. "Throughout the night we're disappointed obviously but there's a lot of good aspects in the performance.
"My job is to turn that performance into results, which I look forward to doing. I'm looking forward to getting back to Cork tonight to start that work tomorrow.
"A tough night, but we're ready to go to work."
