Dundalk 4 Cork City 0

When he sits down to reflect on his side's first full round of games in this title race, Stephen Kenny may settle for writing off last week's defeat by Bray as either a slight aberration or the necessary price to be paid for having to adjust to the loss through injury of his skipper, Stephen O'Donnell.

Either way, there is plenty for the manager to be pleased about, not least the manner in which the now league leaders bounced back last night which could hardly have been more impressive.

Goals from John Mountney, Pat Hoban (two) and Richie Towell gave them a margin of victory here that didn’t even begin to flatter them and there were shades of the second half in Inchicore about the way they disposed of their previously undefeated visitors. Cork, as it happens, were terribly poor but then even good teams tend to be when Dundalk play like this against them.

The match had been delayed for 15 minutes to give Cork a little time to recover from a road trip significantly extended by a burst water mains in Newlands Cross and the flood there might well, in its way, have contributed to the deluge here for the visitors didn’t look remotely up to speed through a first half dominated by a faster, more focussed and fiercely determined home team.

Garry Buckley may have generated some small amount of misplaced optimism amongst the few travelling fans by having the first real crack at goal but almost from that point on it was Stephen Kenny's side who settled into their stride; playing and passing with an intensity that dazzled their opponents.

League leaders
City's status as league leaders in the lead up to the game had been bolstered by the fact that they had beaten Shamrock Rovers well and taken points from both St Patrick's and Sligo.

But here they looked a very distant second best with a Dundalk midfield anchored around Chris Shields instead of O’Donnell opening them up time after time and creating chances for Pat Hoban and his rotating supporting cast.

Hoban might have got the opener after just six minutes when Mountney’s surging run was ended on the edge of the area but the ball ran to the striker who had ample space in which to turn and target the inside of the far post. The home support had only to wait another three minutes for something to celebrate, though, with a slightly sliced shot by Mountney catching Mark McNulty in no-man’s land.

That was the first time City had conceded on the road this week but there a definite sense that it wouldn’t be the last.

Dundalk’s movement and drive in the City half consistently left their opponents looking overwhelmed and as their confidence grew, the home side’s passing only got slicker.

They retrieved their share of seemingly lost causes due in part to some half-hearted defending and nobody in John Caulfield’s back four really emerged with too much credit from goals two or three, both of them Hoban headers from close enough range.

At that stage the strangest thing about the home side’s performance was the relatively peripheral role being played by Towell who contributed steadily enough but wasn’t quite hogging centre stage the way he likes to. Liam Kearney did his bit to keep the Dubliner in the wings by holding his own in an entertaining mini-duel but Towell may have suffered too from the growing belief amongst those around him, Shields included, that City were there to be taken on and beaten.

The 22 year-old, in any case, got to make his mark shortly after half-time. A corner from the left was only partially cleared and most everyone in the Cork box stood rooted to the spot as the midfielder stepped up, picked his spot and watched with the rest of them as the ball flew into the top corner.

The deficit
At that stage Caulfield must really have realised that the game was up. He had tried to sort a few things out at the break with a double substitution and switch to 4-4-2 but the fourth goal left his side requiring something utterly remarkable and there wasn't the slightest hint that was on the agenda.

In the end, about the closest they came to cutting the deficit was when Rob Lehane got goal-side of Brain Gartland under a high ball forward only for his first touch to let him down.

Dundalk never really lost their grip on things, though, even if they coasted through much of what remained of the game without posing too much of a goal threat themselves that was to prove a small mercy for the outclassed visitors.

DUNDALK: Cherrie; Gannon, Gartland, Boyle, Massey; Shields; Meenan (Byrne, 80 mins), Towell, Mountney (Griffin, 75 mins), Horgan; Hoban (McMillan, 71 mins).

CORK CITY: McNulty; Lenihan, Murray, D Dennehy, Dunleavy; Kavanagh (Lehane, half-time), Morrissey; Kearney, Buckley (Davoren, half-time), B Dennehy (O'Leary, 58 mins); O'Sullivan.

Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).