Shelbourne punish Stephen Kenny’s attacking approach with two goals on the break

League of Ireland Premier Division: St Patrick’s Athletic 1 (Lennon 43) Shelbourne 2 (Moore 49, Kelly 84)

As the real story unfolded across town at Dalymount Park, St Patrick’s Athletic were punished for an overly ambitious approach with two Shelbourne goals in transition.

Both were sucker punches. Sean Moore and Daniel Kelly did the damage, dropping Stephen Kenny’s side from second to third in the Premier Division, six points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers.

Bohemians beat Waterford 2-0 at Dalymount to cut Rovers lead at the top of the table to three points with two games remaining.

St Pat’s can stay in the hunt by winning away to Derry City on Monday night. But, undoubtedly, this was their chance. Five shots on target from 25 attempts tells its own story.

The League of Ireland had been meandering towards its usual conclusion. Rovers 2-1 defeat of Bohemians last Monday appeared to ruin any chance of high drama over the last three Friday nights of the season.

The defending champions were set to maintain their stranglehold on Irish football in the 2020s with a sixth title in seven seasons unless Galway United could fight their way clear of relegation at Eamonn Deacy Park.

A few minutes before Jamie Lennon gave St Pat’s a first-half lead, word filtered around Richmond Park that Aaron Bolger had scored Galway’s second. It finished 2-0 out west.

News of Rovers’ struggles infused the old ground with a rare energy. “Bolger was a Saint!” screamed one long-suffering Pats man. Bolger also started his career at Rovers. But no matter.

The locals were beginning to voice their frustration as St Pat’s were denied five separate goalscoring chances. Shels goalkeeper Eddie Beach deserves praise for denying Anthony Olunsanya and Zach Elbouzedi.

Also, James Norris made a perfect slide tackle on Kian Leavy. It was so well timed that referee Paul Norton pointed to the spot before his linesman set him straight.

The match officials were in agreement moments later when Kameron Ledwidge fouled Leavy in the box, only for Aidan Keena to slam his penalty off the crossbar.

Kenny delved into his bag of managerial tricks this week to take all the attention off his players and heap it squarely on his own shoulders. The St Pat’s manager took aim at the FAI, namely its League of Ireland department, for what he described as a “chaotic” and “undemocratic” fixture run-in that gave Shamrock Rovers an extra day’s rest before they beat Bohemians.

It sounded like Dalymount Park would have been a better Dublin venue to witness the title race when Sam Todd gave Bohs an early lead against Waterford.

But Lennon silenced a small but noisy gang of Shelbourne fans with a shot that deflected off Beach’s heal to give St Pat’s a 1-0 lead two minutes before half-time.

Suddenly, Kenny’s attacking formation had his team three points behind Rovers with a game in hand.

The attacking approached backfired early in the second-half when Kelly put Moore through to level the derby. Before the crowd could draw breath, Bohs had pushed Pats to third in the table with a goal from Ryan Burke.

Kenny reacted by replacing Leavy with teenage attacker Ryan Sheridan before Chris Forrester and Ryan Edmondson arrived for a grandstand finish.

The season was on the line as St Pat’s bombarded the Shels goal. The push for silverware actually lost them the game as Kelly punished them on the break with six minutes remaining.

Ali Coote was shown a red card late on for a heavy challenge on Sheridan, who was lucky to avoid serious injury.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Anang; Redmond, Hoare, Turner; Elbouzedi, Baggley (Forrester 73), Lennon, McClelland (Brown 84); Leavy (Sheridan 62), Keena (Palmer 83, Olunsanya (Edmondson 73).

Shelbourne: Beach; Untergrabner (Lunney 66), Ledwidge, Casey, Norris (Bone 72); Henry-Francis (Coote 72), McInroy; Moore (Boyd 88), Caffrey, Kelly; Odubeko (Martin 65).

Referee: Paul Norton.