City ship two late goals to lose in Inchicore

📷 KBD Photos

With the news of the appointment of Ger Nash providing some positives for the fanbase, City would travel to Inchicore to face off against St Pats in City’s first game since the departure of Tim Clancy. Nash was in the stands for this one, overseeing his soon to be new side.

It was Liam Kearney and Greg Yelverton at the helm for the time being, and they made two changes to Tim Clancy’s final starting lineup. The suspended Darragh Crowley made way, along with Milan Mbeng who dropped to the bench. They were replaced by Kitt Nelson and Josh Fitzpatrick.

Stephen Kenny made three changes to his side that fell to a defeat in Tolka Park last time out. Anto Breslin, Zack Elbouzedi and Chris Forrester all came out of the side, with Al-Amin Kazeem, Barry Baggley and Jake Mulraney getting the nod in their place.

Pats came out of the blocks fast as they dominated the early stages of the game, with the home side taking the lead fifteen minutes in. A corner whipped high to the back post found Mason Melia, who rose highest to power a header into the back of the net to give his side the lead.

Pats continued to dominate a slightly sluggish City side but the hosts struggled to create many clear cut chances despite their dominance. 

They did come close with six minutes to go in the half. Al-Amin Kazeem played a brilliant one two with Mulraney down the left hand side, with Kazeem feeding Aidan Keena the ball at the edge of the box. Keena dummied a shot, sending Sean Murray flying past, before letting fly and narrowly missing the near left hand corner.

That would be the last major action of the half as despite Pats being all over City, it was only the one goal that separated the two sides.

After hearing from their incoming manager at half time, City brightened up in the second half and were a different team from the first half. The visitors took full advantage and equalised in the fifty seventh minute. A corner drove into the box was met by the head of Charlie Lyons who deftly headed the ball into the far right top corner to deservedly level the game.

City had the momentum and were pinning back a suddenly poor Pats side, and the visitors almost took the lead nine minutes later. Harry Nevin received the ball deep down the right hand side and whipped a ball to the front post which was met by an unmarked Kitt Nelson, but Nelson’s side footed volley hit the side netting and the big chance went begging.

City kept the pressure on a now timid Pats team and their pressure paid off with twelve minutes to play. MIlan Mbeng burst down the right hand side and cut inside at the byline, with Kazeem going sliding past him, but bringing the ball with him via his outstretched arm. The referee pointed to the spot, and after much gamesmanship by Stephen Kenny making subs while the pen was waiting to be taken, Seani Maguire stepped up and slotted it home to give City the lead.

City were on top and were deserved leaders, however, an all too familiar scene began to be played out as poor management of the lead lead to Pats equalising with a minute of normal time to go. City sent a large number of men forward for a free kick, a free which was cleared away by Pats. They broke away with Simon Power speeding down the left hand side and curling a ball across goal which was met by Elbouzedi, whose attempted shot went across goal and rebounded off of Matty Kiernan and into the back of the City net.

A sense of inevitability entered the air of the away end as the thought of defeat began to loom, and it went from a thought to reality in the fifth minute of additional time. A long ball to the back post was headed back across by Sean Hoare, but it went too far and was picked up by Elbouzedi in the left corner. He turned and dinked the ball into the channel for the oncoming Jamie Lennon, who took a touch and buried his effort into the far bottom right corner to give Pats a late victory in Richmond Park.

It’s two more crushing late goals conceded by City which now brings it to 18 points dropped from winning positions so far this season, four more than the next highest total of 14 by Drogheda United. Once or twice is just bad luck, but at this point there is an inherent issue of defending leads, specifically late in games. It could be a confidence thing, or a coaching thing, both of which can be improved in the near future with Ger Nash at the helm, but it is something that needs to be sorted very quickly. Joint bottom is far from good enough and the coming weeks and months of the season are vital, as experience desperately needs to be added in the summer, especially to replace the departing Cathal O’Sullivan, and possibly Kitt Nelson, Tein Troost and Rio Shipston too. City played extremely well in the second half after a poor first half, but once they took the lead they were unable to manage the game and fell to yet another defeat.

As for Pats, I thought it was a fairly uninspiring performance from them all things considered. The absences of Chris Forrester and Romal Palmer were very telling as Jamie Lennon had the bulk of the workload for the vast majority of the game, and to be fair to him was by far and away Pats best player, with the majority of the side looking fairly average and not providing much, especially in the second half.

My Man of the Match goes to Jamie Lennon. No other Pats player other than Axel Sjoberg was in any real contention for this to be honest as it was a fairly underwhelming performance from the Saints, but Jamie Lennon was a bright spark in the Pats side. He had the run of the midfield for large portions of the game and only had real problems with doing so once Greg Bolger entered the fray. 

City will have to pick themselves up once again, and Ger Nash will take charge of his first City game when his side travels to Galway on Friday. As for Pats, they'll look to grab another three points as they travel to Tallaght to face Shamrock Rovers this coming Monday