Melia birthday brace buries brutal City

📷 KBD Photos

After a positive draw at home to Shamrock on Friday, it was a quick turnaround for City as they travelled to Inchicore to take on St Pats. It was a very one-sided affair, as Pats ran rampant and battered City 4-0, leaving very little hope for the Leesiders to cling onto.

Ger Nash made two changes to the side that held the league leaders, with Benny Couto and Sean Murray coming into the side, replacing Greg Bolger and Matthew Kiernan.

Stephen Kenny made three changes to Pats’ draw with Galway. Luke Turner, Chris Forrester and Jake Mulraney all dropped out, with Jordon Garrick, Tom Grivosti and Barry Baggley coming in.

Pats got off to a hot start and could've taken the lead inside the first minute of the game. Jamie Lennon broke forward with the ball before playing it wide to Kian Leavy. The Pats winger cut inside to try and angle a shot, and eventually got one off, but the effort dragged wide of the near post.

Pats' fast beginning to the half eventually proved fruitious as they took the lead in the sixth minute. A great corner delivery from Simon Power landed on the head of Joe Redmond, who lost Darragh Crowley before powering a header into the far corner to give his side an early advantage.

Things got even worse for the visitors as their deficit was doubled twelve minutes later. Simon Power picked up the ball inside his own half and broke forward. Power got all the way down to the byline before lifting the ball towards the back post, where Mason Melia arrived to nod the ball past Conor Brann to grab Pats’ second of the night.

Pats ran the game for the rest of the half, but as the hosts were cruising, there wasn't much action for the remainder of the fourty five.

Pats started the second half just the way they started the first, dominating play and giving City plenty of problems. The hosts should've taken advantage of this and made it three in the fifty sixth minute. A corner flew over to Simon Power at the back post. He fired the ball across the six yard box to Mason Melia, who sent a first time effort flying over the crossbar.

Melia missed another big chance for Pats a minute later. City got caught at the back as Melia nicked the ball off of Feely and bore down on goal, but the Irish u21 international put his side footed effort narrowly wide of the right hand post.

If you give someone enough chances, they’ll eventually take one, and Melia did just that as he buried his third big chance in two minutes. City were caught at the back again, with a loose pass finding the feet of Jamie Lennon. The midfielder looped a ball over the top for Melia to chase, with the striker finding the bottom left corner with a low finish to bury the game.

The action wasn't quite done there though, as Kian Leavy made it four in the sixty second minute. An out-swinging corner was knocked down by Joe Redmond, and half cleared by the City defence. It came to Jamie Lennon out wide, who drove the ball across goal to Kian Leavy. He shimmied past Josh Fitzpatrick and tucked the ball in the back of the net to bag Pats’ fourth.

The game died down after that, with no hope left in the visitors and no motivation in the hosts, the game came to a close. In vast contrast to the game on Friday, it was an absolutely soulless performance from City. You never felt like we were ever going to score, with the Pats defence having the most comfortable night they'll ever have. It was the same for their attack too, they were able to pierce through the City backline time and time again and punished the visitors for it. Pats probably should've scored six or seven goals rather than just four. The standout issue was the defending from set pieces. The lack of proper marking was evidently woeful and Pats had multiple goals from them. It’s now an extremely long shot for City to stay up. As well as that, it's a very bad omen for next week's cup semi final fixture.

My Man of the Match goes to Pats’ Simon Power. You could pick about half the Pats team here, but to me Power was the pick of the bunch. He made getting through the lines look effortless at times and created huge amounts of chances for his teammates, which led to him getting two assists.

City turn their attention to Friday, where they travel to Eamonn Deacy Park to take on Galway United. As for Pats, they travel west to take on Sligo Rovers.