Dundalk 5 Bray Wanderers 0
League leaders Dundalk enjoyed a stroll in the sunshine on Friday night as they put Bray Wanderers to the sword at Oriel Park.
The visitors made the trip north with a host of players out through injury but Stephen Kenny’s side showed absolutely no sympathy with a clinical display.
The opener arrived in the 13th minute when Patrick Hoban hammered home goal number 13 of the season after Dylan Connolly touched a Seán Hoare cross into his path.
Connolly left his old club on the ropes two minutes later, the former Seagulls star given time to compose himself and pick his spot from 18 yards to fire past Evan Moran.
The visitors, who saw Gary Rogers bat a Daniel Kelly effort away early on, lost skipper Gary McCabe with less than half an hour played.
And Dundalk added a third before the break when Jamie McGrath tapped home from close range after Moran could only parry a Michael Duffy volley into the midfielder’s path.
Hoban departed in the 62nd minute, but not before he headed home Dundalk’s fourth and substitute Ronan Murray rattled the crossbar with a free shortly after.
Substitute Marco Tagbajumi squeezed home a Dean Jarvis cross to make it 5-0 before a miserable night was compounded for Bray when Andrew McGovern was carried off with a serious injury late on.
DUNDALK: Rogers; Hoare, Gartland, Cleary, Jarvis; Shields, Benson (Adorjan, h/t); Connolly, McGrath (Murray, 62 mins), Duffy; Hoban (Tagbajumi, 62 mins).
BRAY WANDERERS: Moran; Hayes (Mamaliga, h/t), Kenna, Heaney, Lynch; D Kelly, O'Conor, McKenna, McCabe (McGovern, 27 mins), Galvin; Coughlan (Pender, 82 mins).
Referee: Robert Harvey.
Attendance: 1,877.
St Patrick’s Athletic 1 Cork City 3
Cork City maintained the pressure of league leaders Dundalk with a hard-earned victory over Liam Buckley’s St Patrick’s Athletic at Richmond Park.
After referee Neil Doyle pointed to the spot just 10 seconds into the action, the energetic Kieran Sadlier dispatched the resulting penalty to the Saints net.
Though City were expected to push on for the remainder of the half, they had to be content with a slender advantage at the break. This lead was eventually cancelled out just past the hour mark, when Conan Byrne’s neat close-range finish raised the roof off the Inchicore stand.
The woodwork subsequently came to City’s rescue when Ian Bermingham unleashed a half-volley inside the area, but John Caulfield’s side ultimately restored their one-goal cushion in the 72nd-minute.
Following fine approach work by Sadlier and Graham Cummins, Jimmy Keohane found the top right-hand corner with a superb curling effort. Deep into second-half stoppage-time, netminder Tyson Farago joined the Pat’s attack for a final roll of the dice.
However, after Sadlier’s long-distance clearance from an ensuing corner trickled all the way into the empty Saints goal, City’s 14th league win of the campaign was finally confirmed.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Farago; Madden, Leahy, Toner, Bermingham; Desmond; C Byrne (Fagan, 79 mins), Kelly (Markey, 72 mins), R Brennan (K Brennan, 85 mins), Doona; T Byrne.
CORK CITY: McNulty; Horgan, Bennett, McLoughlin, Griffin; McCormack, Keohane; Sheppard (Beattie, 79 mins), Buckley (McNamee, 38 mins), Sadlier; Cummins (O'Hanlon, 72 mins).
Referee: N Doyle (Dublin).
Waterford 4 Derry City 0
Waterford were rarely troubled by Derry in ending their recent four game winless streak.
Although City could gave leapfrogged the Blues into third with victory, their defensive frailties were once again shown up.
Dundalk and St Patrick’s Athletic has recently hit the Candystripes for four and five respectively and another hiding looked likely at the break.
Two cheap goals conceded from set-pieces in as many minutes underlined City’s deficiencies.
Faysel Kasmi’s 12th-minute corner was far from perfect but the visitors only half-cleared the danger, allowing Rory Feely to smash the loose ball home from 10 yards.
Centre back Darren Cole, having conceded the free-kick near the halfway line, allowed Izzy Akinade beat him in the air to bundle home the second.
Although Rory Patterson missed a sitter to reduce the arrears, Derry conceded again five minutes before the interval.
Sander Puri, celebrating a call-up by Estonia for next week’s Baltic Cup, unleashed a 35-yarder into the top corner that gave Ger Doherty no chance.
Courtney Duffus could have added a fourth on the hour only to delay his shot by Stanley Aborah had better luck.
The substitute, sent off seven days ago against Limerick, atoned by curling a sublime shot into the top corner.
WATERFORD: Vigouroux; Feely, Browne, Webster, Barnett; Héry; Puri, Kasmi (Aborah 60), Holohan (J Martin, 83 mins); Akinade, Duffus (Walsh, 86 mins).
DERRY CITY: Doherty; McDermott (Ronan Hale, 72 mins), Cole, Toal, Doyle; Rory Hale (Logue, 86 mins); McDonagh, Low, McEneff, Curtis; Patterson.
Referee: R Rogers (Dublin)
Sligo Rovers 0 Limerick 0
Ten-man Sligo Rovers were left hanging on for a point at the Showgrounds after centre back John Mahon saw red for two bookable offences with 10 minutes left.
A first half lacking quality did have one minute of genuine excitement as Limerick hit Rovers’ crossbar twice in the space of 60 seconds.
Firstly Cian Coleman’s looping header dropped over the head of the back-pedalling Mitchell Beeney and bounced off the bar.
And almost immediately after, Rhys McCabe tripped Shane Duggan at the edge of the box, and former Rovers winger Daniel Kearns rattled the crossbar with the free-kick.
Rovers’ best chances of the opening half came shortly after that as Brendan Clarke was twice forced to make sharp saves to deny efforts from Lewis Morrison and McCabe inside the area.
Eoin Wearen flashed a header narrowly wide from a Kearns corner early in the second half, before both sides looked to their benches on the hour-mark to try and find a winner.
Rovers subs Raff Cretaro and Ally Roy combined with 15 minutes left, but Wearen made a crucial challenge before Mahon was sent-off at the other end.
SLIGO ROVERS: Beeney, Sharkey, Callan-McFadden, Mahon, Waters, Wixted, McCabe (Pinceli, 90+2 mins), Cawley, Keaney, McAleer (Roy, 61 mins), Morrison (Cretaro, 61 mins).
LIMERICK: Clarke, Kelly, Cantwell, Whitehead, B Dennehy (Walsh-O'Loughlin, 62 mins), K O'Sullivan (Fitzgerald, 61 mins), Coleman, Duggan, Wearen, Kearns, M O'Sullivan.
Referee: A Buttimer.
