Boyce puts Saints on the back foot
Cliftonville 1 St Pat's Ath 0
St Patrick's Athletic yet again fell to defeat against Cliftonville on a frustrating night for Liam Buckley's men.
This joust was a repeat of the 2011 first-round clash between the sides and, while the playing personnel and coaching staff were much-changed from that which suffered defeat against Cliftonville 12 months back, the vociferous travelling support made the journey north with revenge very much in mind.
Last year, Pat's visited Solitude and came away on the wrong side of a 3-0 scoreline, which they were unable to turn around at Richmond Park, and boss Buckley will believe his men are capable of overturning this year's 1-0 deficit next Monday.
After Liam Boyce had struck the Pat's woodwork, Chris Fagan miscued from a promising position at the far post.
Brendan Clarke could do nothing to stop Cliftonville pulling in front on 48 minutes, however, when Northern Ireland international Boyce made no mistake with a powerful drive.
Though Saints twice hit the post through Fagan and then Chris Forrester, they were grateful to Clarke for keeping them in the tie with two late saves to deny Martin Donnelly and Chris Scannell.
CLIFTONVILLE -- Brown, McMullan, Garrett (O'Carroll 75), Donnelly, Smyth, Seydak, McAlinden Caldwell 4), Templeton, Gormley (Scannell 75), McVeigh, Boyce.
ST PAT'S -- Clarke, O'Brien, Bermingham, Kenna, Browne, Chambers, Rossiter, Forrester, Meenan (O'Flynn 68), Fagan, Carroll (O'Connor 77).
REF -- R Hetherington (Dungannon).
Irish Independent
