EMMET MALONE

Having conceded 15 in five games prior to travelling south for this, the prospect of Ballinamallard overturning even a one-goal deficit from the first leg of this tie was always remote. But the ease with which St Patrick's brushed them aside at Richmond Park suggests the competition might need another of those close-season tweaks that we have grown so used to.

The northerners leaked five at the weekend to one of the team’s that declined to enter this year, Cliftonville, and 11 earlier in their league campaign to one that failed to qualify, Portadown.

Here, they had comfortably enough chances themselves to register a goal or two of their own but were so poor at the back that the Dubliners might easily have had a few more.

Liam Buckley will, of course, be pleased that Mark Quigley got 90 minutes under his belt and scored a couple of goals but really it became apparent fairly early on that the game meant very little to anyone.

The attendance of 648 had been an early clue but the regularity late on with which the home side carelessly squandered good chances left no room for any doubt.

As it was, the home team were allowed to romp through the game untroubled by their manager or, for the most part, their opponents. Ballinamallard, to be fair, had their moments and both Stuart Hutchinson and Richard Lecky really should have had goals but from the point at which Quigley put the locals ahead in the 12th minute there wasn’t the remotest doubt about which side was going through to the semi-finals.

Conan Byrne got his first of the night just over a half hour and the midfielder made it three shortly before the break when Quigley scooped the ball over the defence and into his path.

The goal of the night came on 62 minutes when James Chambers, Byrne and Chris Forrester all linked up before Quigley finished and Daryl Kavanagh drove low past Rouse from distance to round things off.

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Gilmartin; O'Brien, Foran, Oman, Bermingham; McCormack (Forrester, 50), Chambers, Lynch (Bolger, 53); Byrne (Chindea, 79), Quigley, Kavanagh.
BALLINAMALLARD UTD: Rouse; N. Beacom, Stafford, Hill, McCartney; Campbell, Currie, Hutchinson (McManus, half-time), Martin (Crawfford, 66); Kee, Lecky (Crilly, 79) .
Referee: Rob Rogers (Dublin).