Stephen Kenny revels in Pat's performance of 'highest quality' against Shamrock Rovers

Stephen Kenny showered his St Patrick's Athletic players with praise for hitting the heights on the way to an impressive 3-0 away victory over Shamrock Rovers in the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division.

The in-form Saints took control of proceedings at Tallaght Stadium on Friday night, courtesy of a first-minute goal from Joe Redmond and a second from Jake Mulraney.

The latter added the third in the second half to put the icing on the cake and lift the Inchicore side to within five points of the third placed Hoops with a game in hand.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport's Oisin Coyne after overseeing his side's display, Kenny was gushing in his praise of how his players handled the occasion against the reigning four-in-a-row champions.

"It was a really good performance from the players in and out of possession. A lot of the play was of the highest quality really I felt," said the former Republic of Ireland manager.

"Great composure and a high technical level and delighted to get the win."

The victory was a fourth in a row and leads St Pat's up nicely to Monday's clash with league leaders Shelbourne, which will be live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

While Kenny expects that game at Tolka Park to be a very different proposition tactically against a team that are "league leaders on merit", he sees signs of growth within his own squad especially in the chance creation department.

"We've taken 16 from 18 in the league in that period and scored three against Shamrock Rovers tonight and three last week against Waterford, three against Sligo, four against Drogheda, three against Vaduz in Europe, so we've been scoring goals and they've been coming from different areas and that was a problem for us when I first came in, that was a big issue.

"We weren't very