A DOUBLE from midfielder Dave Mulcahy helped St Patrick's Athletic on their way to victory at Oriel Park last night against Dundalk.

The Lilywhites have now leaked goals in each of their last 13 games and after a week which saw them concede four in Tallaght and six in Sofia.


For Pat's, this result keeps their title ambitions well on track. The result was never in doubt from as early as the 7th minute when Mulcahy was given acres of space to knock home a Derek Doyle corner.


Paul Byrne should have made it 2-0 in the 12th minute when he found himself in oceans of room to meet Ryan Guy's cross but somehow the big striker missed his header from six-yards out.


Dundalk failed to heed the warning and Pat's doubled their lead four minutes later. Peter Cherrie failed to deal with a Brian Cash cross and after seeing the ball bounce around a number of heads in the home side's penalty area, Mulcahy was in the right place to loop a header back across goal and into the corner.


The home side fared little better going forward with Ross Gaynor smacking an effort badly wide. Garry Breen and Tom Miller did test Gary Rogers with efforts that the Pat's goalkeeper had no problems dealing with.


Dundalk offered little to suggest a way back into things and any hopes of a comeback were ended when Conor Kenna glanced Damien Lynch's free-kick past Cherrie in the 51st minute.


DUNDALK: Cherrie, Synnott (Fenn, HT), G Breen, McGuigan, Hatswell; Kelly, Maher, Miller, Gaynor; Kuduzovic, Lennon.


ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Rogers; Pender, Lynch, Kenna, Guthrie; Cash (Faherty, 79 mins), S Byrne (McAllister, 57 mins), Mulcahy, Doyle; Guy, P Byrne (North, 85 mins).


REFEREE: Tom Connolly (Dublin).