St. Patrick’s Athletic boss Liam Buckley was pleased by his side’s dominant performance in their 2-0 win over Drogheda United in Richmond Park on Friday evening. Goals early in either half from Ian Bermingham and Kurtis Byrne respectively proved eno
St. Patrick’s Athletic boss Liam Buckley was pleased by his side’s dominant performance in their 2-0 win over Drogheda United in Richmond Park on Friday evening.
Goals early in either half from Ian Bermingham and Kurtis Byrne respectively proved enough for Saints, despite their dominance perhaps warranting a greater margin than just two goals.
“I thought we played well tonight,” Buckley told reporters after the game. “In the first half in particular we created quite a few chances and we could have come in [at the break] with a healthy score, but it wasn’t to be.”
The win takes Saints from the foot of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division table up to eighth place, now just one place behind Drogheda, and Buckley was evidently relieved to see his side move out of the relegation zone.
“It’s just nice to get out of the bottom three,” he added. “There’s very little between a lot of the teams. Drogheda have beaten us already this season and now we’ve beaten them. Aside from the top two or three, there is very little between the rest of us.”
Despite managing 11 shots in the first half, Pat’s went in at half time just one goal ahead, but Buckley never felt as though they would live to regret their missed opportunities.
“We tried to just encourage them to keep going in the second half and we knew that if we kept getting chances then we would take some of them. After the second goal I think we might have relaxed a little bit and stopped pressing as much but that said, I think we deserved our win.
St. Pat’s face Sligo Rovers next in another crucial game. Buckley is hopeful that his players can use this win and performance as something to build on as they look to put together a sequence of positive results.
“We’ve worked hard this evening, we got a little bit of luck but we played well and scored our goals. We need to make sure this is a stepping stone for next week and to push on now.”
