Sligo Rovers drew 0-0 with St Patrick’s Athletic last Saturday in Richmond Park.
Both sides made just one change from differing results last time out, St Pat’s losing 3-0 in Waterford while in-form Sligo notched up their fifth win from six games with a 3-1 home victory over Finn Harps.
St Pat’s began positively with Georgie Kelly, Chris Forrester, Jamie Lennon and Robbie Benson having sights of goal that came to nothing, all inside the opening seven minutes.
Composed in their passing, the home side maintained their dominance of the ball as Sligo laboured to get a foothold in the game.
Liam Buckley’s side finally managed to do that on 24 minutes, springing to life in an attacking sense to carve the first real opening of the game.
Right-back Lewis Banks’ diagonal ball was helped on by skipper David Cawley for Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe. The Londoner cut across the St Pat’s 18-yard area to unleash his shot that was deflected out for a corner.
Minutes later, the visitors’ more direct approach troubled St Pat’s again. Jesse Devers played a long-range one-two with Will Seymore to get into space on the right.
The cross, though, had just a little too much on it for Ronan Coughlan who couldn’t get any real purchase on his header that was well off target.
Likewise Junior a minute before half-time, when the winger glanced a header wide from Cawley’s cross after Sligo had worked a short corner.
As in the first, St Pat’s began the second half on the front foot.
A promising move involving Forrester, Kelly and Billy King set up Shane Griffin whose drive was blocked and cleared by a blanket Sligo defence.
Left-back Griffin then did well two minutes later when getting across the end line only to drill his shot into the side netting.
Upping the tempo, St Pat’s were inches from a deserved lead on 61 minutes.
The impressive Feely’s cross dropped awkwardly for Benson in the area, though the midfielder still managed to direct it off his thigh onto a post, Banks hacking the loose ball clear.
The same upright came to Sligo’s rescue again on 83 minutes as Forrester’s curling shot beat Ed McGinty only to strike the butt of his left-hand post.
Club captain Ian Bermingham’s late introduced marked a record 309th league appearance for St Pat’s.
Rovers then finished with ten men when midfielder Niall Morahan was sent off for a second booking in stoppage time.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Brendan Clarke; Rory Feely, Luke McNally, Lee Desmond, Shane Griffin (Ian Bermingham 81); Jamie Lennon (Darragh Markey 86), Chris Forrester; Jordan Gibson, Robbie Benson, Billy King (Jason McClelland 70); Georgie Kelly.
Sligo Rovers: Ed McGinty; Lewis Banks, Kyle McFadden, Teemu Penninkangas, Regan Donelon; Niall Morahan, David Cawley; Jesse Devers (Alex Cooper 87), Will Seymore (Garry Buckley 75), Junior; Ronan Coughlan.
Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin)