Pete Mahon started his second spell with St Patrick's Athletic with a point following the 1-1 draw with Cork City at Richmond Park on Friday.

 

Having agreed to fill the void left by Jeff Kenna's resignation last week, Mahon has 10 games left in the season following this draw to ensure the Dublin club stay away from the drop zone.

 

While there were plenty of positives for the new manager to pick up on, he will have noticed some issues that need to be promptly addressed, like the lack of communication amongst the players and their error-strewn defending.

 

That sloppy defending led to Cork taking the lead inside the opening 10 minutes when Davin O'Neill realized that just a little bit of pressure was needed to expose the cracks in the Saints backline.

 

O'Neill charged down an attempted clearance by left-back Enda Stevens and then kept his composure to fire a low drive past St Pat's goalkeeper Brendan Clarke. It was all too easy for the visitors.

 

Paul Doolin's men went in search of a second goal when O'Neill evaded two tackles before his deflected shot was smothered by Clarke as Guntars Silagailis closed in hoping for a rebound.

 

The Inchicore crowd attempted to lift their team with some vocal encouragement and it appeared to work as Mark Quigley forced a save from Cork keeper Mark McNulty after he peeled away from his marker.

 

Declan O'Brien was next to try his luck when he expertly re-adjusted his body in time to connect with a Ryan Guy cross from the right, but his header lacked the necessary power to hit the back of the net.

 

On 42 minutes, the pressure exerted by the hosts was rewarded when referee Tom Connolly pointed to the penalty spot and showed Greg O'Halloran a red card for hand-ball after he stopped Stuart Byrne's header from going in.

 

Quigley made no mistake from the spot as he slotted his effort into bottom right corner on 42 minutes.

 

After the interval, St Pat's enjoyed the bulk of possession and should have converted at least one of the many chances that fell to Gary Dempsey, Quigley, O'Brien, and Byrne.

 

Cork adopted a cautious approach in the second period due to their numerical disadvantage, so it was not that surprising that their only real effort on goal came from a long range strike from Danny Murphy.

 

Despite pushing for the winning goal, it never arrived for the home team. Perhaps they should have made better use of their extra man, but then again this is a team low on confidence so a point will do against a team sitting three places above them in the league.

 

St Patrick's Athletic: Clarke, Lynch, Gavin, Haverty (Maher 26), Stevens, Guy, Dempsey, Byrne, D Ryan (B Ryan 72), O'Brien, Quigley.

 

Substitutes Not Used: Rogers, Lester, Leech.

 

Cork City: McNulty, Mulcahy, O'Halloran, Long, Murphy, O'Neill, Gamble, Lordan, Dennehy, Cambridge (Kuduzovic 72), Silagailis (Duggan 45).

 

Substitutes Not Used: Connor, Horgan, Deasy.

 

Referee: Tom Connolly (Dublin)