Premier Division Round-up: Dundalk hammer Saints to go 10 points clear at the top

Dundalk 4 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Dundalk roared 10 points clear at the top of the SSE Airtricity League table after blowing St Patrick’s Athletic away at Oriel Park on Monday night.

The reigning champions signalled their intent after just 30 seconds. David McMillan worked space on the left of the Pat’s penalty area to pick out Richie Towell but his first time volley posed no danger to Brendan Clarke.

The breakthrough arrived in the sixth minute when Daryl Horgan’s corner from the left was met by Brian Gartland and he thumped a header past Clarke to give Stephen Kenny’s side the ideal start.

The Lilywhites continued to display a real cutting edge and their pressure told again in the 13th minute when a beautiful passage of play ended with Finn slipping McMillan in behind the Pat’s back four and he made no mistake.

Pat’s eventually stemmed the tide and James Chambers was unlucky to see the ball whistle past the upright with Gary Rogers well beaten.

Any hopes of a Pat’s comeback looked to have gone up in smoke two minutes later. Daryl Horgan’s pass steered McMillan to the left of the penalty area but the former Pat’s striker rifled a fine drive across Clarke to take his tally to 11 for the season.

The goals continued to rain down and Chambers pulled one back in the 38th minute when he bent a free-kick around the wall to beat Rogers at his near post.

Dundalk restored their three-goal cushion going into the break when Ronan Finn rolled the ball across the face of goal for Daryl Horgan to tap home.

Pat’s emerged for the second half looking much more assured and Conan Byrne forced a save from Rogers after cutting in from the right before Aaron Greene saw a shot deflected just over the top.

Rogers atoned for his earlier mistake by clawing another Chambers free-kick away for a corner in the 74th minute before Greene directed a neat effort just wide.

Dundalk, however, saw the game out to take a huge step towards the club’s 11th league title.

DUNDALK: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland, Boyle, Massey; Towell, O'Donnell; Mountney, Finn (Shields 58), Horgan (Meenan 90); McMillan (Maguire 85).

ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Clarke; McEleney, Desmond, Hoare, Bermingham; Bolger (McGuinness HT), Chambers, Forrester; Byrne, Greene; McGrath (Markey 66).

Referee: Dave McKeon.

Bray Wanderers 3 Bohemians 1

Chris Lyons equalised and then set up a terrific second goal for Peter McGlynn as Bray beat Bohemians in a dress rehearsal of their FAI Cup third-round clash this Friday.

Though the better side for large parts of the first half, Bray had to come from behind to go in level at the interval.

Bohemians snatched the lead against the run of play from their first corner of the game on 19 minutes.

Bray goalkeeper Peter Cherrie could only punch away Lorcan Fitzgerald’s delivery. The ball was returned back into the area where midfielder Robbie Creevy was unmarked to head home.

The controversial awarding of a penalty three minutes later brought Bray an equaliser when Eoin Wearen was harshly adjudged to have fouled Lyons when he appeared to have won the ball. Lyons confidently drove the spot kick to the roof of the net.

Bray deservedly went ahead with a superbly-worked goal three minutes into the second half.

McGlynn initially put Lyons away down the inside left channel before getting on the end of the return ball to shoot to the far corner of Dean Delany’s net.

Delany then kept rampant Bray out with top stops to deprive Lyons and then Cassidy.

Not to be outdone, Cherrie produced the save of the game on 65 minute, touching over substitute Ismahil Akinade’s shot after Jake Kelly carved the opening.

Dave Scully added Bray’s third goal on 93 minutes, collecting fellow substitute Gareth McDonagh pass to rifle to the top corner of the net.

BRAY WANDERERS: Cherrie; Douglas, McNally, Cooney, Barker; Sullivan; McGlynn (Scully, 70), Kelly, McEvoy, Cassidy; Lyons (McDonagh, 85).

BOHEMIANS: Delany; Hayes, Lopes, Best, Fitzgerald; Kavanagh, Wearen (Dillon, 33), Creevy (Mulcahy, h/t), Kelly; O'Brien; J. Byrne (Akinade, 59).

Referee: Rob Rogers (Dublin).

Sligo Rovers 1 Derry City 0

Sligo Rovers eased their relegation fears thanks to a win over Derry City at the Showgrounds.

Rovers were in front by the 19th minute, as centre back Tim Clancy rose highest to head home Regan Donelon’s corner for the only goal of the game.

Derry’s cause wasn’t helped by the sending off of Philip Lowry in the second half, while Aaron McEneff was forced off with an ankle injury early in the contest.

Cillian Morrison came on as his replacement, and forced a good save from Richard Brush after breaking into the area just before the interval.

Mark Timlin also flashed a shot just over the crossbar, and a half-cleared corner came back to him wide on the right early in the second half.

But they were left with an uphill task when referee Pádraig Sutton red-carded midfielder Lowry on the advice of fourth official Robert Hennessy for an apparent stamp on Raffaele Cretaro.

SLIGO ROVERS: Brush, Boylan, Keane, Clancy, Donelon, Cretaro (Lehane 82), Hughes, Cawley, Puri, Russell, Nielsen.

DERRY CITY: Doherty, Cornwall, McBride, Barry (Quigley 88), McEneff (Morrison 29), Lowry, Jarvis, McNamee, McEleney, O'Connor (Daniels 88), Timlin.

Limerick FC 3 Longford Town 3

Limerick’s biggest attendance of the season witnessed a six-goal thriller but the points split hit hopes of the home side avoiding the automatic drop to the first division.

The crowd of 1,779 came alive at Market’s Field as Limerick swept into a two-goal lead after only 19 minutes but it was all square at the interval and while Limerick again led 3-2 they could not manage a fourth despite creating several good chances.

Limerick set the pace from the start but had to wait for 15 minutes for the first goal when a Val Flaherty pass created the chance for Ian Turner to beat Paul Hunt.

Limerick doubled their score four minutes later when a superb strike from distance by Shane Tracy gave Hunt no chance.

But if Limerick thought they were in for a comfortable night Longford had other ideas.

After Hunt had pushed away an effort by Seán Russell the visitors swept upfield and Ben Mohamed’s cross was headed past Freddy Hall by Rhys Gorman.

That was after 31 minutes and it was all square 11 minutes later thanks to Mark Salmon whose shot rolled over the line from an angle after he had beaten Hall.

Gary Shaw missed a great chance for Longford four minutes into the second half but a splendid header by Robbie Williams gave Limerick renewed hope of extending their winning sequence.

Hunt made a superb save from Dean Clarke after 64 minutes and Faherty volleyed over a minute later.

Nineteen minutes from the end Conor Powell’s free was headed to the Limerick net by Stephen Rice to give Longford a precious point.

LIMERICK FC: Hall, Paudie O'Connor, Paul O'Conor, Tracy, Williams, Duggan, Clarke, Lee J Lynch (Kelly 60) , Russell, Turner, Faherty.

LONGFORD TOWN: Hunt, Rossiter, Powell, Mulhall, Mohamed (Kelly 58), Shannon, Salmon (Gannon 85), Rice, O'Connor, Gorman, Shaw.

Referee: Ben Connolly (Dublin)

Galway United 1 Drogheda United 1

Mick Daly netted a crucial equaliser for Drogheda United, but they couldn’t take advantage of an understrength Galway United at Eamonn Deacy.

The 26-year old former Manchester City youth player found the net in the 69th minute but the visitors couldn’t build on that.

Injury and suspension meant the Tribesmen were down to the bare bones of their squad but they battled for a crucial draw.

Jake Keegan got a deserved goal for Galway United just before the break but they couldn’t hold onto the lead.

GALWAY UNITED: Hanley; Raftery, Oji, Byrne, Sinnott; Shanahan, McConnell, O'Leary, O'Laoi; Melody, Keegan.

DROGHEDA UNITED: Schlingermann; Daly, Byrne, O'Reilly, Gorman; Mulvenna, Maher, Hughes, Thornton, Marks; Duffy (McKenna, 87).

Referee: Graham Kelly (Cork).