Stephen Kenny showered his St Patrick’s Athletic players with praise for hitting the heights on the way to an impressive 3-0 away victory over Shamrock Rovers in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division.
The in-form Saints took control of proceedings at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night, courtesy of a first-minute goal from Joe Redmond and a second from Jake Mulraney.
The latter added the third in the second half to put the icing on the cake and lift the Inchicore side to within five points of the third placed Hoops with a game in hand.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport’s Oisin Coyne after overseeing his side’s display, Kenny was gushing in his praise of how his players handled the occasion against the reigning four-in-a-row champions.
“It was a really good performance from the players in and out of possession. A lot of the play was of the highest quality really I felt,” said the former Republic of Ireland manager.
“Great composure and a high technical level and delighted to get the win.”
The victory was a fourth in a row and leads St Pat’s up nicely to Monday’s clash with league leaders Shelbourne, which will be live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
While Kenny expects that game at Tolka Park to be a very different proposition tactically against a team that are “league leaders on merit”, he sees signs of growth within his own squad especially in the chance creation department.
“We’ve taken 16 from 18 in the league in that period and scored three against Shamrock Rovers tonight and three last week against Waterford, three against Sligo, four against Drogheda, three against Vaduz in Europe, so we’ve been scoring goals and they’ve been coming from different areas and that was a problem for us when I first came in, that was a big issue.
“We weren’t very prolific so fair credit to the players for actually stepping up and delivering those kind of performances,” he said.
Shamrock Rovers manager Stephen Bradley bemoaned his side’s off-colour display, having seen his side claw themselves back into title race contention before the setback against St Pat’s.
“I thought the goal in the first minute gives Pat’s real momentum in the game but to be fair, all night I thought they looked fresher than us,” he said.
“We looked a little bit off it all night in every aspect. Defending, attacking and transitions, we looked a little bit off it.
“And we’ve been good (recently) but tonight we looked off it.”
However, while the defeat was a blow, Bradley said there was no reason to wave the white flag in regard to the race for the title given that Shelbourne were only able to extend the advantage at the top by one point after drawing with Sligo Rovers. With four matches remaining for Rovers, they are five points off the summit having also played an extra game in comparison to Shels and Derry City above them.
“There’s only a point’s difference in what it was before the game. Are we disappointed that we haven’t won the game? Of course, we’re always disappointed when we don’t win,” said Bradley.
“But like I said, there’s one point in the difference to what it was before the game, so just nice and calm, regroup and get ready for next week.”
Thursday will see Rovers get their UEFA Conference League campaign underway when they host Cypriot champions APOEL at Tallaght Stadium, before they return to league action on Sunday for a showdown with Shels.
“It’s a really big game,” he said of the impending European night, which marks the first staging point in a league phase that will also see them face the likes of Chelsea and Larne.
“You want to be involved in big games. We’ve worked so hard to get ourselves into group-stage football again, second time in three years – which is incredible from the players – and we go and try to win some games and get some points on the board, starting next Thursday.
“We’re against a really good team, we know that but we’ll go and try to win the game.”
