Dundalk’s Kurtis Byrne celebrates his goal last night
Dundalk showed they meant business in the Airtricity League Premier Division title race with a scintillating performance to see off Shamrock Rovers 3-1 at Oriel Park last night.
One of the best performances the side have produced in years, coupled with St Patrick Athletic’s draw against Drogheda United, means that Stephen Kenny’s side now lie just a point off top spot – albeit the sides around them all have a game in hand on the Lilywhites.
It’s Dundalk who are the form side heading into the final round of matches though and they certainly hit the ground running last night by taking the lead inside the opening two minutes. Patrick Hoban raced onto a poor back pass from Conor Powell before skipping past Richard Brush to send a packed Oriel into raptures.
They then doubled their advantage on the quarter hour mark with Hoban rising unchallenged to meet Darren Meenan’s corner as he powered a header to the net from eight yards out for what was his 13th of the season.
Dundalk had plenty of chances to add to their advantage after that but their failure to add a third looked like it might prove costly when Trevor Crolly’s visitors pulled a goal back a minute before the break as Karl Sheppard swept home a tidy pass from Sean O’Connor, who had broke down the right.
The Tallaght men almost levelled matters five minutes after the restart when Jason McGuinness got up to meet a Billy Dennehy free but Peter Cherrie pulled off a wonder save to keep his side in front.
Dundalk then put the game to bed in the 53rd minute. Meenan’s free to the back post was headed back across goal by Andy Boyle with Brush only able to palm the ball into the path of Byrne, who rifled home to an empty net.
Sheppard had a great chance to cut the deficit late on but was denied by another stunning save from Cherrie before Rovers’ night went from bad to worse four minutes from time when Stephen Kenny was shown a straight red card for kicking out at Chris Shields.
Dundalk: Cherrie; Sullivan, Boyle, Gartland, Shields; Dillon (McCaffrey 76), Towell, O’Donnell, Meenan; Hoban (Faherty 87), Byrne (Mulvenna 84). Subs not used: Kelly, Murphy, Keegan, Shanahan.
Shamrock Rovers: Brush; McCormack, McGuinness, Oman, Powell; O’Connor (McCabe 66), Robinson, Chambers (Rice 80), Dennehy (Stewart 73); Sheppard, Zayed. Subs not used: Ledwith, Foran, Sullivan, Murphy.
Referee: Alan Kelly (Cork).
Att: 2,179.
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