A goal from Ryan Guy helped St. Patrick's Athletic get their Airtricity League season off to a winning start, while Chris Konopka kept a clean sheet for Waterford United as they also picked up three points.
St. Patrick's Athletic 2-0 Galway United
Revenge was certainly achieved by St. Pat's on Friday evening after they were thrashed by Galway in the opening game of last season, but they were boosted by the early dismissal of Stephen O'Donnell.
O'Donnell was sent off after just 17 minutes following two yellow cards and that was the beginning of the end of any sort of challenge the visitors would pose. But by that stage they were already trailing 1-0.
Guy fired the Saints into the lead on nine minutes when he cleverly spun away from his marker, collected a pass from Stuart Byrne and drilled a powerful shot at Galway keeper Barry Ryan who parried the ball into the top corner of his net.
Alex Williams wrapped up the victory on 69 minutes when he scored from close range following a failed clearance by Jamie McKenzie to make it two goals in two games for the Dublin club since joining from Dundalk.
Guy had two more scoring opportunities late on, but the game was as good as over by then. St Pat's take on Drogheda United in the Leinster Senior League on Monday before travelling to Belfast to meet Linfield in the Setanta Sports Cup on Saturday.
Waterford United 3-0 Wexford Youths
Stephen Henderson will have been pleased to see his team cruise to a win on the opening day of the season that sends them straight to the top of the First Division table.
Vinny Sullivan fired the Blues in front on seven minutes after linking up with Timmy Purcell and shortly after that they took full control of the game following the dismissal of Warren Broaders for Wexford.
Konopka, making his first competitive start for the promotion hopefuls, was almost left red-faced when an attempted clearance fell straight to opposition striker Gary Sheehan and he set up Danny Furlong, but the youngster failed to convert.
Waterford then raced further ahead with goals from Willie John Kiely and Alan Carey as they secured an impressive win. Next up is a tough game against Cork City Foras Co-op. |
|
|
| Register for Email Alert to receive news, interviews, and more directly to your inbox without spam. Ever. |
|
|
|
Currently visting YA: 541 
See these related articles
