General
- Friday April 23rd, 2021 @ 20:37
Report: Finn Harps 0-2 Saints (23/04/21)
St Patrick's Athletic continued their excellent start to the season with a 2-0 victory at Finn Harps.
Billy King and Matty Smith got a goal each in each half to secure the three points and move The Saints to 17 points from their opening seven matches.
Manager Alan Mathews made four changes to the team that beat Waterford on Tuesday night.
John Mountney, Sam Bone, Jamie Lennon and Matty Smith came back in in place of Shane Griffin, Darragh Burns, Ben McCormack and Alfie Lewis.
Robbie Benson missed out with a knock picked up in training.
Played in the Ballybofey sunshine, it was the away side who had the best chance of the early exchanges but Sam Bone headed Chris Forrester's curling corner just wide.
Karl O'Sullivan had Finn Harps' only real opportunity of note in the first-half, but after a nice pass from Barry McNamee, he shot over the bar.
The opener came on the half-hour mark with Billy King grabbing his second goal of the season.
Ronan Coughlan's lovely flick found the Scotsman who turned and jinked on the edge of the box before smashing his shot beyond Mark McGinley and in!
Harps came out quickly at the beginning on the second-half, former Saint Dave Webster's volley was easily saved by the ever impressive Viet Jaros.
Matty Smith then scored his first goal for the club to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute.
The excellent Jamie Lennon found Coughlan, whose lovely cross was headed in by Smith to double the lead and secure the points.
Six minutes of injury time saw some late defending but The Saints remained solid to keep their clean sheet and head back to Dublin with three points!
The focus now turns to next Friday's home game against Longford Town before a Bank Holiday Monday trip to face Liam Buckley's Sligo Rovers.
Finn Harps: McGinley, Sadiki (T McNamee, 70), Webster, Folan, Dunleavy (Rainey, 66), Coyle, Seymore, O'Sullivan (Doherty, 59), B McNamee, Russell (Foley, 69), Shanley (Boyd, 59)
St Patrick's Athletic: Jaros; Mountney, Barrett, Bone, Desmond, Bermingham (Griffin, 85), Lennon, Forrester, Smith, King (McCormack, 85), Coughlan (Lewis, 70)
Referee: Rob Harvey
Photo credit: Sportsfile
