ST Pat’s claimed three valuable points against Aikenhead Thistle on Saturday to boost their chances of staying in the Central Scottish Premier League.

The home side came close in the opening exchanges with Currie and D’annunzio testing Munro in the Thistle goal but it would be Danny Graham who would break the deadlock in the 22nd minute.

Bursting into space he took possession of a super pass from D’annunzio before slipping the ball past the advancing Munro and into the net.

In the second half the pattern remained the same with Dennison doing well to deflect a shot from Hunter and while Aikenhead showed persistence they were not able to disturb the Saints’ defence.

St.Pats’ Michael King was out of luck with a well-placed header that was cleared off the line by Cassidy.

But the home side remained patient and got rewarded just after the hour mark. Again D’annunzio was on hand to feed the ball to Graham who showed great composure with one touch to control and one touch to deliver a pass to Munro and double his team’s advantage.

With the clock winding down to 90 minutes some icing on the cake followed as an impressive run and cross from Cannon left Graham to finish with a well-timed jump and header at the near post.

This earned Graham a hat-trick that followed his four in last week’s Scottish Cup tie v Erskine and despite Hoy, Deeley and Kevin McElroy missing it was a heartening performance and result before next week’s league game v Drumchapel at Posties.

St Pats: Denison, King, McIntyre, Clearie, MacGuire, D McElroy, Galloway, Currie, Graham, Allan, D’annunzion, Cannon, Hannaway, Bissett.