Dundalk 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 0
For the second time in the space of five days, Dundalk hit a late, late winner with Seán Hoare sinking St Patrick’s Athletic’s at Oriel Park.
After seeing off Bohemians with a 96th-minute penalty on Monday night, Vinny Perth’s side had to dig deep again.
They were handed more than a bit of good fortune. With the clock showing 90 minutes, Kevin Toner’s attempted clearance cannoned off Hoare and flew into the top corner, sparking scenes of jubilation.
Pat’s created the first real chance of a poor first half when Simon Madden’s delivery found Mikey Drennan but he couldn’t keep his header on target.
He should have done better six minutes later when he met Rhys McCabe’s free but, again, his header posed no real danger to Gary Rogers.
Dundalk continued to look flat with Seán Murray’s free-kick, which was tipped around the post by Brendan Clarke, the closest they came to pulling ahead.
The introduction of Jordan Flores at the break injected real purpose into Dundalk and Michael Duffy saw a deflected effort creep wide of the post with Clarke rooted to the spot.
Harry Kenny’s side remained disciplined and both Toner and Jamie Lennon showcased their stubbornness by throwing themselves at efforts in the final 15 minutes.
It looked like they had done enough to take something from the game but Lady Luck turned her back on the Saints when Hoare’s deflection whistled into the top corner to seal a win that keeps Dundalk top of the pile on goal difference.
DUNDALK FC: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland, Hoare, Jarvis; Shields, Murray (Flores, h/t); Mountney (G Kelly, 71 mins), McEleney (D Kelly, 88 mins), Duffy; Hoban.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: Clarke; Webster, Toner, Kelly; Madden, Lennon, McCabe, Markey, Bermingham; Drennan, Shaw (Jake Walker, 85 mins).
Referee: Paul McLaughlin.
Attendance: 2,377.
Bohemians 1 Sligo Rovers 2
Romeo Parkes scored twice, the second a smash-and-grab late winner, as Bohemians finished with 10 men in an injury-interrupted clash at Dalymount Park.
The victory stretches Sligo’s unbeaten run to eight game as Bohemians’ poorest run of the season continues, now five outings without a win.
The first half was marred by nasty injuries on either side. Bohemians were dealt a blow first on eight minutes when leading scorer Dinny Corcoran twisted his right ankle and had to be taken off on a stretcher after several minutes of treatment.
Corcoran’s replacement Ryan Swan was straight into the action to precede another long injury delay from the 15th minute.
Sligo defender Dante Leverock and his goalkeeper, Ed McGinty, collided outside the box as they came to meet a ball over the top.
Leverock, who took the force of McGinty’s elbow in the face, needed almost 12 minutes of treatment before also being taken off on a stretcher.
McGinty produced the save of the half, 11 minutes into the 18 added on, when diving to his right to palm away a cracking drive from the impressive Danny Mandroiu.
But Sligo caught Bohemians cold to take the lead three minutes into the second half.
Captain David Cawley’s through ball found the run of Parkes who drilled a low shot past James Talbot and in off the far post.
Bohemians responded within four minutes, the impressive Conor Levingston smacking home a low drive from the edge of the area under the dive of McGinty.
Having lost their leading scorer to injury, Bohemians then saw their captain Derek Pender shown a straight red card on 68 minutes for a challenge on Lewis Banks.
Despite that, Bohemians dominated much of the remainder of the game only to be hit with a sucker punch on 89 minutes.
Levingston gave the ball away deep in opposition territory and Ronan Coughlan broke to play Parkes through, the big Jamaican turning a defender one way then the other before sweeping the ball home.
BOHEMIANS: Talbot; Pender, Finnerty, Barry, Leahy; Levingston, McCourt (Allardice, 79 mins); Ward, Mandroiu, Devaney (Wade-Slater, 51 mins); Corcoran (Swan, 13 mins).
SLIGO ROVERS: McGinty; Dunleavy (Donelon, 45+2 mins; Twardek, 64 mins), Leverock (McFadden, 27 mins), Martin, Banks; Cawley, Warde; Fordyce, Murray, Parkes; Coughlan.
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).
Attendance: 2, 353
Derry City 4 Finn Harps 0
Ciaron Harkin netted his first hat-trick from his hometown club at a packed Brandywell as Derry City romped home in the north-west derby against Finn Harps at the Ryan McBride Brandywell.
The home side appeared to struggle in the final third during the opening half hour as Harps flooded their defence, but having broken the deadlock in the 32nd minute they dominated the game from that point.
Harps wing back Daniel O’Reilly was adjudged to have bundled David Parkhouse over inside the area under the nose of referee, Tomás Connolly, who immediately pointed to the spot.
And while goalkeeper Peter Burke parried Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe’s spotkick, but the winger was alert to the rebound to net at the second attempt.
Derry owned the ball for long spells and it came as no surprise when they doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time.
Harkin opened his hat-trick with a spectacular free-kick. Standing over the ball after Ogedi-Uzokwe had been fouled on the edge of the penalty area, the 22-year-old midfielder curled a superb shot high into the top corner much to the delight of the estimated attendance of 3,000.
David Parkhouse really should have made it 3-0 deep in first-half injury time but he opted for power rather than placing his shot, an effort which failed to hit the target in a one-on-one situation.
The match was over as a contest in the 66th minute when Harkin netted his second and Derry’s third. Barry McNamee rolled the ball into the midfielder’s path and passed the ball into the net from 16 yards.
And he netted his third goal and Derry’s fourth in the 90th minute when diverting Ogedi-Uzokwe’s pass to the net.
For good measure, the two sides will face each other at the same venue on Monday night in the quarter-final of the EA Sports Cup.
DERRY CITY: Cherrie; McDonagh, Toal, Kerr, Coll; Harkin, Sloggett; Bruna (T McNamee, 80 mins), B McNamee (Malone, 75 mins), Junior; Parkhouse (Delap, 74 mins).
FINN HARPS: Deasy (Boyle, 55 mins), Burke; Todd, Cowan, O'Reilly, Russell;, Coyle, T McNamee (Borg, 55 mins), McAleer; Cretaro (Place, 75 mins); Boyd.
Referee: T Connolly (Dublin)
Waterford 1 UCD 0
Zack Elbouzedi’s first-half goal gave Waterford a precious victory and condemned basement battlers UCD to their ninth league defeat on the spin.
After Seán McDonald spurned a couple of early chances for the Students, Waterford took control.
Slow as they were to start motoring, a strong final 15 minutes of the first half proved the winning of the game.
Bastien Héry, their star of last year’s fourth-placed finish, woke the quiet crowd on the half hour by pouncing on a loose pass to bear down on goal.
His shot carried the power but Josh Collins darted across to deflect the rising effort over the crossbar.
The brother of Manchester United target Nathan again got his body in the way minutes later after Cory Galvin looked poised to sidefoot home from eight yards after Aaron Drinan’s lay-off.
All the pressure soon told. Smart build-up play down the right between Kevin Feely and Galvin looked to have come to nothing until the deflected cross fell at the feet of Elbouzedi.
His low volley fizzed beyond his Ireland under-21 colleague Conor Kearns and into the bottom corner.
Conor Davis wasted the only real opportunity for the Students to level 15 minutes from full-time when he fired straight at Matt Connor.
At the other end, substitute Izzy Akinade was also culpable of profligacy, failing to beat Kearns from point-blank range.
WATERFORD: M Connor; R Feely, D Delaney, M Kouogun, G Poynton; K Chvedukas (S Griffin, 89 mins), JJ Lunney; C Galvin (I Akinade, 67 mins), B Héry, Z Elbouzedi (S Twine, 84 mins); A Drinan.
UCD: C Kearns; E Farrell, L Scales, J Collins; N Farrugia, C Davis (Y Mahdy, 76 mins), P Doyle (D Bishop, 87 mins), G O'Neill, R O'Farrell; J McClelland (D Keane, 87 mins), S McDonald.
Referee: R Hennessey (Limerick).
Attendance: 1,311.
