SLIGO ROVERS suffered their first defeat of the league at Oriel Park last night, where two goals inside two minutes midway through the second half turned the tide in Dundalk's favour.

From the start Sligo looked the better side; but Dundalk defended well in the early period and Sligo could not make their dominance pay.

The visitors, however, went ahead seven minutes before half time, when some slack defending allowed James Mulligan to head the ball across the Dundalk goalmouth to set up Sligo's new signing, Gary O'Sullivan for an easy goal.

Sligo could have - put the game out of reach four minutes into the second half when Mulligan left the Dundalk defence standing, but Les Fridge made a brilliant one-handed save.

Robbie Devereaux, who had come on as a substitute at halftime, put Dundalk level in the 60th minute, when he got two bites at the cherry and rocketed his second effort to the top right corner of the Sligo net, giving Alan O'Neill no chance.

Sligo were obviously rattled by this score and less than two minutes later a free kick taken by David Crawley was headed backwards by a defender, giving Mick Doohan a chance to shoot to the net for the Dundalk winner.

Sligo never really responded to the challenge of going behind, though in the closing minutes Steve Berks shot wide of an empty goal.