Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Stephen Kenny is thrilled to have Aidan Keena back ahead of schedule but stopped short of saying he could start two games in four days. Keena was the Premier Division’s top scorer when he suffered a hamstring injury in the middle of March. At the time, the Saints thought the striker could be sidelined for four months but the Mullingar man made it back in seven weeks. Keena was a surprise starter in Friday’s 2-0 win over Galway United, where St Pat’s looked to be cruising after first-half goals from Kian Leavy and Zack Elbouzedi. But the Tribesmen threw the kitchen sink at them in the second-half, but just couldn’t put away their chances against 10-man Saints who had Axel Sjoberg sent off. Keena got 55 minutes under his belt and ahead of Monday’s trip to Derry City, Kenny paid tribute to his medical team. “Sam Rice and the medical team did brilliantly. They’ve been the stars of the show in the last few weeks getting Aidan and Simon (Power) back,” he said. “Sam was confident. Some physios hedge their bets and are on the cautious side but he’s able to call it with conviction all the time. I’m very impressed with that. He said no, he was happy to play but he’d run out of steam which he certainly did.” Sign up for our League of Ireland news service on Whats App Click this link or scan the QR code to receive the latest League of Ireland news and top stories from the Irish Mirror. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice . Of Keena’s injury itself, Kenny said: “He did the hamstring near the T-junction which is different. We thought we were losing him for four months. The T-junction is a really bad one as the area to tear but we got him back in under seven weeks. We did terrific. We wouldn’t normally start someone for the first match in but Aidan has a great infectious personality. He wants to play, which is a positive sign.” (Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne) St Pat’s returned to the top of the table with Friday’s win and put the memories of last week’s late, late collapse to Bohemians behind them. In his programme notes, Kenny was highly critical of his team for blowing a 1-0 lead in injury-time at Dalymount Park, to lose 2-1. “The pain of that resonates and infiltrates your system and leaves you in a cave where light doesn’t exist,” he wrote. Quizzed on the week that was, Kenny said last night: “Instead of feeling good about ourselves and positive all week going into Galway, it was post-mortems and analysis. We’re just delighted now to beat Galway because we know they are tough opponents and have a very effective way of playing and cause you problems.” But the course of the game might have taken a different turn had Galway striker Moses Dyer not missed from two yards, just before the Saints scored their two goals. “There’s no doubt about that,” said Kenny. “That chance, it was surreal because it was like the world stopped for a minute. Everything just stopped. But I felt we deserved it. The first-half was a really good standard of technical play and in the second we had to roll up our sleeves and show a different side.” Kenny added: “Some people say Pat’s haven’t played well and they’re top, but we’ve been prolific by scoring a lot of goals.” (Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne) Galway United boss John Caulfield knows Dyer - the top scorer in the league - could have scored a hat-trick at Richmond Park. But he won’t be hard on the New Zealand international and Caulfield said: “Goals change games and it's 0-0. Moses would score that in his sleep all day long. “It's only two games where we haven't scored. We've been scoring goals all year and creating chances. On another night Moses would get three but he's been great for us. In the second-half we were really good and threw everything at them. If we scraped one back we felt we'd have a chance to get something out of it, but it wasn't to be.” Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.