FRUSTRATION GROWS FOR STEPHEN KENNY AS ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC RUE OFFSIDE DECISIONS

STEPHEN KENNY CUT a frustrated figure following St Patrick’s Athletic’s 0-0 draw at home to Bohemians last night.

The Saints boss insisted it was not a worry that his side have scored just one goal in six games as attention now turns to their European campaign.

St Pat’s welcome FC Hegelmann to Richmond Park for the first leg of their UEFA Conference League first-round qualifier on Thursday, and just two wins in 12 games since they were top of the Premier Division on 2 May is an indication of how their season is on the rocks.

Kenny acknowledged that Bohs are “a very good team and they finished strong”, and highlighted Simon Power’s disallowed goal at a crucial stage in the second half.

“I think we didn’t create enough clear cut chances in the first half but obviously Jason McClelland’s effort coming back off the crossbar and we had some periods of play. Obviously Simon Power was clearly onside when he’s running again and that’s happened about five or six times,” he said.

“I have evidence of five or six goals that have been clearly onside given offside. The easiest thing to do is just put up a flag and I think it’s probably, we’ve got quick players like Jake Mulraney and Zach [Elbouzedi] and Simon so we have explosive players but they’re the main players that have been flagged when they’re running through.

“We’ve seen it quite a few times but, listen, that’s the way it goes. Bohs had a couple of chances at the end themselves and we had to defend well to keep the clean sheet.

“Bohs actually showed more attacking play and more attacking intent than in the games we lost. In those five games we’ve kept three clean sheets and conceded one with an xG of 0.2 in both the games or something like that. So apart from Galway where we lost 3-1 and we have to take that one. So we’re not conceding but we’re not scoring and we have to score goals and we’re not doing that.

“It doesn’t worry me but it frustrates me and I think it is frustrating that we can’t seem to just get that break.”

Bohs, for their part, also had opportunities to take all three points. The best opportunity of the first half fell to new signing Douglas James-Taylor, but the striker was unable to score from 12 yards on his debut.

“You know, it’s a good chance and I think he’ll be disappointed in that. No disrespect to anyone, we have a different way of playing and we’re asking him to press and that. So he’s going to have to take time to adapt to that and we feel he’ll get better over time,” boss Alan Reynolds said.

Substitute Colm Whelan also glanced a close range header wide in second-half stoppage time as Bohs finished the game with intent in their bid to secure European football next year.

“Yeah, I know that Pat’s are a team that would be wide open and want to come and play, so if the weather was better it would have been a proper game, but they were trying to win and they were leaving gaps and we were the same actually.

“We wanted to win it and we’re not going to be different against anyone, that’s the way we want to be, we don’t set up to try to snatch a draw, but yeah, we’d enough chances at the end to win it, I would have felt. I think it was a great chance at the end,” Reynolds said.

2025-07-05T10:15:11Z