Shamrock Rovers piled more misery on Stephen Kenny's side as they ran out 2-1 winners with a performance that Stephen Bradley must have been delighted with. The home side dominated the first half and created a number of opportunities in front of goa
Shamrock Rovers piled more misery on Stephen Kenny's side as they ran out 2-1 winners with a performance that Stephen Bradley must have been delighted with.
The home side dominated the first half and created a number of opportunities in front of goal, while restricting Dundalk to little more than a handful of half chances.
They took the lead after 17 minutes when great work from Simon Madden down the right wing saw him squeeze his way into the box. He pulled the ball back into the path of former Dundalk star Ronan Finn whose shot into the bottom corner gave Gary Rogers little hope of saving.
Rovers doubled their advantage eight minutes before the break with an excellent in-swinging corner from Graham Burke that found David McAllister at the back post. Rogers got his hand to the defender's header but he failed to keep it out.
The second-half fightback that Dundalk fans might have expected never came, as Rovers showed a great battling mentality to once again limit champions Dundalk to many chances of note.
Rovers were reduced to 10 men in injury time when Darren Meenan picked up a second yellow card. Dundalk pulled a goal back with seconds to go through Niclas Vemmelund but it was too little too late for the Louth side.
