Buckley wants Richmond Park to become a fortress after Limerick win

St. Patrick’s Athletic secured their first home win of the season on Friday night as they narrowly overcame Limerick 1-0 at Richmond Park, which sent them into fifth place with ten points from their opening seven games of the season.

Ian Bermingham was the match-winner on the night, but it could have been more comfortable for Saints who missed a handful of chances to kill off the tie and their boss Liam Buckley was relatively happy to leave with the points in the bag. 

“I thought both teams competed tonight but in the second half we improved and we had the better chances,” Buckley said after the game. “We had the chance to bag a second and even a third goal and if we did that then it’s a different game.

“It was only one last year against Limerick and in the very last minute, the 94th, they bagged a wonder-goal, which put us in serious trouble but we’re moving on with a new group, we’ve brought in a few young lads and hopefully they’ll keep on improving.

“We need to become very difficult to beat here. The pitch will get better, it’ll probably become one of the best in the country and we need to take advantage of that with how we play because we have a very technical group.”

Billy Dennehy, on his return to Inchicore, played as a makeshift left-back for Limerick and largely struggled to deal with Simon Madden’s runs up and down the right flank and it was the former Saint’s rash challenge on Madden that ultimately handed Pat’s the game’s only goal, but Buckley denies that they set out to target the out-of-position Dennehy.

“I watched Limerick play Shamrock Rovers on Monday and Billy was arguably the man-of-the-match,” he added. “He’s a top professional and he does look after himself.

“We didn’t target him as a weak link because we know that he’s very competitive.”

Next up for Saints is a trip north to face Derry City at the Brandywell.