Ruairi Keating delivered on a night of redemption for St Pat’s but Dundalk’s living nightmare shows no signs of ending.
Both of these teams had plenty to prove pitching up at Richmond Park, with the Saints having lost their previous three games on the spin.
But Dundalk’s troubles were particularly stark having arrived here on the back of a humiliating 5-0 home defeat to Sligo Rovers on Monday.
Stephen O’Donnell spoke in the build-up of his side lacking identity in their play but apart from a late flourish, they were no closer to finding one here.
Goalkeeper George Shelvey, signed from Nottingham Forest but hooked at half-time in that Sligo game, didn’t make the match day squad at all with Ross Munro promoted.
St Pat’ have had keeper issues of their own, with on-loan Liverpool man Marcelo Pitaluga looking less than convincing up to now and he was duly dropped.
But Keating’s goal on the half hour settled a full-blooded game that still lacked quality, while rock bottom Dundalk are now four games without a win or a goal from open play.
They have also stretched their winless run in Inchicore to seven games but, in their desperation to atone for Monday night, had actually started well.
And for the opening 15 minutes at least, there was only one team in the game.
Ciaran McGuckin should have made more of his early scoring opportunity – the visitor’s best of that opening half.
But he didn’t get enough purchase on that particular shot from inside the area and goalkeeper Danny Rogers didn’t break sweat dealing with it.
And Dundalk were made to pay for failing to capitalise on that early period of dominance with Saints inflicting the only body blow.
They were building a head of steam before Keating’s opener, and were helped in that regard by Kian Leavy’s brilliant workrate and Chris Forrester’s silky skills.
Forrester played a role in that decisive goal on 30 minutes, hooking a big ball back into the Dundalk half for Brandon Kavanagh and Keating to carve up.
They beat offside and Kavanagh had the measure of Hayden Muller, laying a brilliant ball into Keating’s path while on the spin.
With centre-back Louie Annesley struggling to cover, Keating fired an initial shot that Munro saved, but the rebound fell kindly and he slotted home at the second attempt.
It sparked chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ from the St Pat’s fans, aimed at O’Donnell, their former boss, who left the club for Dundalk in such controversial fashion.
And O’Donnell could only look on as the hosts pushed for a swift second either side of the half-time break with Leavy forcing Munro into action at full stretch.
Saints were in full flight approaching the hour – tenacious and threatening on every attack as Dundalk scrambled to find rhythm.
And Munro made another decent save to prevent the Saints from streaking clear – this time keeping out Forrester’s near post header from Kavanagh’s free.
Dundalk rarely looked capable of rescuing a point, although Luke Turner’s brilliant tackle on Gullan in the box was as vital as it was well-timed.
Sam Durrant’s curling shot in the 90th minute had the Dundalk bench on their feet, ready to celebrate, only to fizz narrowly wide.
The seven minutes of injury-time merely lulled the Lilywhites into a false sense of hope, whereas St Pat’s are pointing in the right direction once again.
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