St Patrick's Athletic boosted their chances of reaching the Setanta Sports Cup final after beating Sligo Rovers 4-1 in their first leg semi-final meeting at Richmond Park.

Goals from Paul Byrne and David McAllister set the Saints on their way before Mark Doninger pulled one back for the visitors. But Gareth Coughlan and then Ryan Guy sealed the win with second-half strikes.

After losing their first league game of the season to Drogheda United last week, Pete Mahon made some changes with Dan Connor, McAllister, Coughlan and Alex Williams coming into the starting eleven.

The reaction that the Saints manager was looking for arrived as early as the 9th minute when Byrne powered in a header following a crisp left-footed delivery from Ryan Guy.

That goal acted as a sucker-punch for The Bit O'Red who had yet to even settle into the game. But they responded with Eoin Doyle twice coming close to scoring.

Sligo suddenly looked the more dangerous of the two sides with Richie Ryan firing wide from the edge of the penalty area following good work by Paul Whelan.

But it was the Saints who lit up the scoreboard again when Derek Pender sliced the visitor's defence open with a through ball that McAllister latched onto and fired in.

Rather than waving the white flag in surrender Sligo dragged themselves back into the game with a headed goal from Doninger after a deflected cross from Gary McCabe fell nicely for him.

However, it was clear just after the interval that the night was going to belong to the Saints when Coughlan executed superbly from a tight angle after Damian Lynch had played him in with a quick free-kick.

Sligo kept scrapping though and had some chances to score again with Doninger shooting wide and Dean Marshall testing the alertness of Connor.

It wasn't to be for Paul Cook's side though as Guy finished the rout with a sublime long-range strike on 85 minutes to cap off a good night's work for the hosts.

The second leg will take place in the Showgrounds on Saturday evening and Sligo have a lot to do if they are to turn this tie around in their favour.

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