Champions Dundalk finish off campaign in style against Galway

Dundalk 4-1 Galway

Dundalk’s coronation took place at Oriel Park on Friday evening after the Lilywhites rounded off their title winning campaign with a 4-1 win over Galway United.

The champions produced another masterclass in attacking football in the opening 45 minutes, taking a three goal lead into the break.

Galway pulled one back in the second half through Ryan Connolly but Ciaran Kilduff had the final say in stoppage time, his goal putting the cap on a 12th title winning campaign - with Stephen Kenny's side finishing seven points ahead of Cork City.

With Thursday’s Europa League game against Zenit St Petersburg in Russia and the FAI Cup final against Cork City on the horizon, Kenny was handed a major boost with the return of his captain, Stephen O’Donnell, from a hamstring injury.

Daryl Horgan, another Galway native in the Dundalk team, also started with many wondering if this would prove to be his final appearance at Oriel Park.

The Tribesmen came to the east coast looking for their first win at Oriel Park since 2005. Under former manager, Tommy Dunne, Galway beat Dundalk in the previous meeting between the sides on August 5th but they have endured a dismal run since, winning just twice.

Dundalk went in with a three goal advantage at the break, but things may have turned out differently had the visitors put away the first clear cut opening of the game in the ninth minute.

Connolly’s pass sliced the Dundalk back four open but Gabriel Sava made a fine stop to get down and palm away Padraic Cunningham’s effort. The striker will feel he should have buried the opportunity.

Galway goalkeeper Conor Winn was then called into action three minutes later, touching a fierce, swerving David McMillan piledriver onto his crossbar.

There was nothing he could do to prevent the opener 60 seconds later however. Kilduff’s lovely little flick found former Rangers player, Dean Shiels in space and he buried his effort inside Winn’s right hand post.

Winn got his sizable frame down well to deny McMillan shortly after as Dundalk pushed for a second goal - but after his earlier fine work he blotted his copybook badly in the 21st minute.

Former Galway defender Paddy Barrett ventured forward for Dundalk and let fly from close to 35-yards. It looked like food and drink for Winn but he let the ball slip from his grasp and it rolled across the line and into into the net.

Stephen Folan almost pulled one back as the rain started to fall heavily at Oriel Park but his header was deflected just past the upright.

The home supporters were celebrating again in the 28th minute when Robbie Benson steered an effort past Winn but a raised flag from the assistant saw it ruled out.

Benson then picked the pocket of Paul Sinnott and drove towards goal but he opted to unselfishly try and square it for Kilduff with just Winn to beat and the chance went away.

Dundalk continued to plough forward and goal number three arrived in the 37th minute. Benson was again involved, playing a neat one-two with Shiels who lifted a beautiful finish over the exposed Winn.

Galway pulled one back in the 55th minute when Connolly forced home at his second attempt after Sava did brilliantly to save his initial effort - but it failed to dampen the party atmosphere.

Kilduff made it 4-1 before O’Donnell lifted the trophy for the third season on the trot amidst wild scenes at the border venue.

Bray 4 Cork 1

Bray gave Cork City the worst possible FAI Cup final send-off - two quick-fire goals scored inside 90 seconds providing the platform for an impressive final-day victory.

Wanderers were unbeaten at the Carlisle Grounds in nine matches since last May - but in John Caulfield’s 99th game in charge of City the visitors were clear favourites having lost just 13 times before kick-off under his stewardship.

But the 14th defeat was founded in the 33rd minute.

Kevin Lynch’s left wing ball rolled all the way across the field, where Jason Marks’ unleashed a stunning first time effort that flew into the top left hand corner of the net - his first goal for the club.

Irish Under-21 cap Dylan Connolly then showed why Dundalk have shown an active interest in him - he added a second goal 90 seconds later.

From Peter Cherrie’s clearance, the ball was helped on to the ex-Ipswich winger who spotted Mark McNulty off his line and lobbed the stranded Cork keeper.

The third goal arrived in the 83rd minute as the unmarked John Sullivan tapped in Connolly’s centre. And while Cork bagged a consolation straight away - Karl Sheppard pounced on Kevin Lynch’s back pass and slotted past Cherrie - substitute Ger Pender had the final say in the 88th minute.

He waltzed past three tackles and fired in from the edge of the box to make it 4-1 to Bray.

St Pat’s 0 Derry 2

Rory Patterson's brace saw off St Patrick's Athletic at Richmond Park and crowned a season of progress for Derry City.

The Candystripes were already guaranteed third spot but strikes by their reliable marksman in either half - the second goal, arriving from the penalty spot with Rory Feely sent-off for his foul - provided a comfortable finish to the campaign.

Liam Buckley’s Saints came into the tie on the back of their 5-2 romp over champions Dundalk but there was little of the spark so evident three days previously.

Sean Hoare should have punished a spill by rookie goalkeeper Shaun Patton after 10 minutes only to shoot tamely at the ‘keeper on the rebound. Conan Byrne had their other half chance with a header that cleared the crossbar.

Derry were far livelier at the other end, thanks in part to some slack defending by the hosts.

Patterson could have had a hat-trick by the break. After an earlier missed chance, the impressive Josh Daniels darted down the left and his low cross was stroked home by the striker. But another missed opportunity before the interval meant that only the one goal separated the teams at the change-of-ends.

Pat’s rarely threatened an equaliser in the second half, apart from Ian Bermingham’s close-range header in the 90th minute.

From the kick-out, Patterson broke clear into the box and was taken down by Feely. The resultant penalty was slotted under Brendan Clarke’s grasp for Patterson’s 20th goal of the season.

Longford 2 Shamrock Rovers 4

Brandon Miele found his range with two strikes from distance as Shamrock Rovers came from behind to beat already relegated Longford Town who finished with 10 men at City Calling Stadium.

The game was lively from the start with Rovers’ defence clearing a dangerous cross from Don Cowan before Gary Shaw brought a decent save from Paul Skinner at the other end, all within the opening two minutes.

Longford then took the lead on nine minutes. Kealan Dillon whipped over an inviting cross from the right flank and midfielder Mark Hughes found the roof of Barry Murphy’s net with a diving header for his first goal of the season.

Rovers were forced into a reshuffle with an injury to defender Rob Cornwall on 23 minutes. His replacement Dean Clarke soon caused Longford plenty of problems down the left, leading to their equaliser on 37 minutes.

Clarke’s deep cross resulted in Longford captain Conor Powell being sent off for a deliberate handball as he rose to challenge Shaw at the back post. Gary McCabe drove home the resulting penalty.

Rovers were then ahead within three minutes of the second half when a header from substitute Aaron Dobbs from Simon Madden’s cross was adjudged to have crossed the line by assistant referee Robert Clarke.

Two minutes later, Miele found the bottom right corner of Skinner’s net from over 25 yards to put Rovers 3-1 up.

Longford hit back on 57 minutes when David O’Sullivan scrambled home Kaleem Simon’s free kick in from the right.

But Miele restored Rovers’ two goal lead seven minutes later when scoring direct from a free kick.

Sligo 5 Wexford 0

A stylish display from Kieran Sadlier saw Sligo Rovers ease past an understrength Wexford Youths side at the Showgrounds.

Wexford boss Shane Keegan opted to go to see their play-off opponents in action in Drogheda rather than travel to Sligo, and he rested most of his first-choice players, as Sadlier’s brace, and goals from Jimmy Keohane, Daniel Kearns and youngster Mikey Place ensured Rovers finished fifth in the league.

Sadlier’s opener arrived after just 17 minutes, as Phil Roberts did brilliantly to swing in a cross from the endline - Sadlier’s volley crept in off the post.

He claimed his second just seven minutes later, this time getting on the end of a cross from Tobi Adebayo-Rowling to float a header over Graham Doyle and into the net.

Before those goals, Wexford had created the game’s first real opportunity, as Aiden Friel’s cross picked out an unmarked Dean George inside the area, but his header lacked conviction and missed the target.

The game was ended as a contest by the hour-mark however, as Rovers scored twice more.

Kearns got number three as he stabbed the ball home from close range after Wexford substitute keeper Corry Chambers had saved his initial effort.

The former Glenavon man then turned provider for Keohane on 57 minutes, as his cross was neatly converted by the Wexford native.

Place fired home an injury-time fifth for his first senior goal for the club to put the icing on the cake.

Finn Harps 1 Bohemians 0

Finn Harps beat Bohemians for the first time in a league game since 1999 to finish the season positively on an emotional evening at Finn Park for two of the most famous names in north-west soccer, Kevin McHugh and Barry Molloy.

Striker Kevin McHugh, whose career was cut-short by injury recently, was given a standing ovation at half-time.

The Killea man made 438 appearances for Harps, and scored 186 goals.

He is the second highest Harps scorer, behind only the legendary Brendan Bradley.

Meanwhile, for Molloy - who spent most of his years at Derry City - this was his final League of Ireland game.

Bohs had the better of the early exchanges with Kurtis Byrne calmly slotting the ball past Richard Brush after seven minutes only to be deemed off-side.

Shortly afterwards Mark Quigley let fly with a cracking effort over the bar while on 21 minutes Brush reacted well to get down and save a glancing header from Derek Penderson who outjumped the home defence to meet a Lorcan Fitzgerald free.

But Harps then came into the game and they took the lead on 44 minutes with a wonderful goal from Ryan Curran who carved out space just inside the before box before unleashing a thundering shot into the top corner beyond the stretched Delaney.

Bohs pushed hard for an equaliser with Quigley hitting the post late on and they will feel that they deserved a draw as they had the better of things in the second period. But they came away with nothing.