This was a great result for Drogheda United, if not an encouraging one for those who want the 2021 season to deliver a title race.

After suffering an agonising first defeat of the season in last weekend’s top-two clash with Shamrock Rovers, Stephen O’Donnell’s St Patrick’s Athletic side followed it up with another reverse at the hands of Tim Clancy’s impressive outfit. Rovers will see it as an opportunity to slip off into the distance.

Clancy enjoyed this one. He’s good friends with O’Donnell but is working off limited resources by comparison and this was a sweet victory for the Premier new boys after some near misses against the division’s leading lights.

The foundations were laid in a solid first-half showing.

With Gary Deegan patrolling centrally, backed by support from the defensively astute Luke Heeney and Jake Hyland, Drogheda had a compact midfield shape with most of the width coming from their full backs when they got forward.

They are a resolute outfit and while the guests had the ball for spells, Drogheda were comfortable enough and found gaps with clever play that exposed a few issues between the Saints defensive and midfield lines.

The breakthrough goal came from that area with ex-Saint Darragh Markey threading a pass towards striker Chris Lyons, who drew a foul from covering midfielder Jamie Lennon.

The Saints might have thought danger was averted but Dane Massey had other ideas, rolling back the years with a superb left-footed free-kick that gave Vitezslav Jaros no chance from 25 yards.

Massey, now doing a job for Clancy as a centre-half following his winter move from Dundalk, has always had that in the locker.

His old pal O’Donnell could only look on in frustration. And he was suffering problems on his right side with another ex-Dundalk player, John Mountney, on edge following an early booking for a foul on left-sided attacker Mark Doyle.

The Drogheda bench implored Doyle to keep asking questions of Mountney and he got his reward before the break, finding the top corner with another excellent strike after tentative defending from the Inchicore side invited danger.

That was a clinical finish, with the away side toothless by contrast, their front two kept at arm’s length and Chris Forrester unsettled by constant pressure.

Forrester did get more space after the restart, but it was the introduction of promising youngster Ben McCormack and a change of shape to a back three that really applied pressure on the natives.

Drogheda were pegged back as the Dubliners committed bodies and the on-loan Reading striker Nahum Melvin-Lambert came off the bench to halve the deficit with nine minutes remaining.

Clancy was irate on the sideline, frustrated that pressure was being invited due to sloppy defending from the front, with sub Jordan Ademayo in the firing line.

But Ademayo would make up for that error by putting the result beyond doubt, capitalising on a counter from the relentless right-full James Brown to convert with glee and move the Drogs up to fourth.

Drogheda Utd: Odumosu, Brown, O’Reilly, Massey, Kane; Deegan; Markey (Ademayo 76), Heeney (Clarke 71), Hyland (Murray 63), Doyle; Lyons.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Jaros, Mountney, Bone, Desmond, Bermingham; Lennon (Melvin-Lambert 78); King, Forrester, Lewis; Coughlan, Smith.

Referee: Paul McLaughlin.