An early Ryan Brennan goal was sufficient in the end for St Patrick’s Athletic to deservedly avenge a defeat at the RSC back in February as Waterford finished with nine men at Richmond Park.
It marked a second successive away defeat for the visitors as the Inchicore side maintained their good form by the Camac with a third home win on the bounce.
As manager Alan Reynolds watched from the stand as he served a one-match ban, Waterford confirmed before the game that they will be appealing the respective six- and four-match suspensions handed out to Stanley Aborah and Bastien Héry following their red cards against Cork City, the case being heard on Thursday.
And though they started well here, the Blues had a let-off five minutes in when St Patrick’s Dean Clarke was yellow carded for simulation despite appearing to have been hauled down in the area by Garry Comerford’s clumsy challenge.
Having been incensed by that decision, the home fans were happy 10 minutes later when their side took the lead.
Darragh Markey showed nimble footwork before floating a delightful diagonal ball into the penalty area for fellow midfielder Brennan to glance a header past Lawrence Vigouroux.
Winning the midfield battle and causing Waterford problems down both flanks, St Pat’s should have added to their lead on 26 minutes.
Sander Puri was booked for a foul on Jake Keegan from Simon Madden’s cross in, conceding a penalty, awarded even though Brennan subsequently shot to the net. Keegan wasted the opportunity by drilling his spot kick wide.
Passing the ball well, Waterford looked to work their way into the game and might have been level on 39 minutes.
Central-back Dave Webster’s long ball down the middle found Ismahil Akinade who chested it down to work Barry Murphy with a low drive.
Their hopes of building on that suffered a blow five minutes after the break when Estonian international Puri saw a second yellow card for diving and was sent off.
A fiercely struck James Doona free kick was deflected wide while Ian Berminghan had a header from a Doona corner tipped over by Vigouroux as St Pat’s pressed to kill off the game.
The night then got worse for Waterford on 73 minutes when they were further reduced in personnel, Gavin Holohan receiving a straight red for clattering into Markey.
St Patrick’s Athletic:
Murphy (Farago, h-t); Madden, Toner, Desmond, Bermingham; Lennon, Markey (Garvan, 86); Doona (C. Bynre, 87), R. Brennan, Clarke; Keegan.
Waterford:
Vigouroux; Feely (Kavanagh, h-t), Webster, Comerford, Barnett; Keegan, Kasmi (O’Halloran, 70), Puri, Holohan; Akinade (Martin, 70), Duffus.
Referee:
Graham Kelly (Cork).
