Waterford FC 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 2
Two goals in the final two minutes of the game saw Waterford FC lose out to St Patrick’s Athletic in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division at the RSC.
Keith Long was forced into a system change and made two personnel changes from the team that lost to Galway with Navajo Bakboord only returning from International duty yesterday while Maarten Pouwels dropped back to the bench after coming in moments before the start in Galway. Trae Coyle came in for his first start in a Blue shirt while Rowan McDonald returned after injury. Long reverted to a back four with Grant Horton at right back, Kacper Radkowski and Darragh Leahy were the centre halves while Ryan Burke was at left back.
Waterford took the game to the visitors with the opening exchanges happening in the Pat’s half. A great move started from Ryan Burke on the left who fed Coyle and kept running. A clever back heel from the debutant returned the ball to Burke inside the area but his pass into Conan Noonan bobbled just before the strike and Pat’s cleared their line.
The goal arrived from another Burke move on fourteen minutes. He picked up an excellent cross field pass from Grant Horton and then spotted the run of Podge Amond. He delivered a perfect ball for the striker who met it just at the top of the area and he powered the header to the top corner for a deserved lead.
The Blues held firm until the final minutes of the game when Darragh Leahy turned the ball into his own net for an equaliser before St Pat’s secured all three points on the stroke of 90 minutes after a foul on Zach Elbouzedi by Leahy on the edge of the area and Brandon Kavanagh fired the free kick past McMullan.
Waterford FC: S McMullan, R Burke (M Pouwels 90+2′), G Horton, K Radkowski, D Leahy, R McDonald (S Glenfield 69′), D McMenamy , J Olayinka, T Coyle(T Lonergan 69′), P Amond, C Noonan (N Bakboord 78′)
St Patrick’s Athletic: J Anang, C Sjoberg (C Carty 82′), J Redmond, T Grivosti (S Hoare 90′), A Breslin (J McClleland 65′), B Baggley (J Lennon 65′), C Forrester, B Kavanagh, Z Elbouzedi, M Melia, J Mulraney (S Power 65′)
Referee: K O Sullivan (Cork)
