WHILE St Patrick's Athletic may be having trouble finding their rhythm in the league just now, in the Harp Lager FAI Cup everything just keeps going to plan. Three non league opponents, three straightforward wins and this was probably the most uncomplicated of the lot with a penalty after just two minutes robbing Wayside Celtic of much of their confidence and depriving the couple of thousand spectators of any sort of real contest.
Without Gerry Hayden, their most influential midfielder from the win over Waterford, it always looked a match unlikely to produce a shock, but when centre forward Colm Talbot, who had also contributed much to that win, popped up to drag Paul Campbell to the ground inside his own box within two minutes of the start, it was clear that the day was not going to belong to the underdogs even before Ricky O'Flaherty slotted away the spot kick for the first of his three goals.
"You can't give the potential league champions a goal start and expect to beat them," said Wayside manager Peter Lennon, after the match, echoing a sentiment that had been common among the crowd and, more worryingly, one that seemed to have struck a chord with his players at the time.
If there had ever been a grand scheme to pinch this tie away from Brian Kerr's side it promptly evaporated with Talbot's moment of madness and from there on it became - all too obviously - a question of playing out the time, keeping their pride intact and concentrating on the upcoming and far more attainable Intermediate Cup final.
As it happened St Patrick's didn't play especially well, with far too much possession handed over in midfield and the offside trap sprung too often, but, fortunately for them, their opponents were at least as generous with the ball, while what chances they did create were well coped with by Gareth Byrne.
Neither Paul Osam nor Noel Mernagh had one of their better days in the centre of midfield, but it mattered little as they were more than a match for Derek Jackson and Mark Byrne and it was out wide on the wings that the Inchicore outfit thrived, with Brian Morrisroe and Paul Campbell finding plenty of space in which to run at their opponents area.
Repeatedly under pressure, the Wayside defence looked more unsettled than in their previous FAI Cup outings and once again it was carelessness that led to O'Flaherty's second, with Johnny Glynn's cross from the right drawing two defenders to the far post and leaving the St Patrick's Athletic top scorer with a free header from close range in the centre.
Shortly before the break, Frankie Byrne did well to pull the ball back into the path of Stephen Martin and, but for a unlucky deflection, his shot might have narrowed the gap but with the favourites pushing the ball around with considerable confidence by this point, even that looked likely to provide nothing more than a consolation.
After the restart, Willie Burke's cross was headed back in by Osam from beyond the far post and O'Flaherty completed his hat trick with a wonderfully placed overhead kick which further deflated the Wayside players and within minutes Mernagh should have started to edge the scoreline towards a rout when he was put clean through.
