Dundalk continued their march to the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title with a comfortable 5-0 win over UCD at Belfield on Friday night. The sides had clashed as recently as Monday night, when the Lilywhites won 3-0 up at Oriel Park. And,
Dundalk continued their march to the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title with a comfortable 5-0 win over UCD at Belfield on Friday night.
The sides had clashed as recently as Monday night, when the Lilywhites won 3-0 up at Oriel Park. And, although Dundalk manager Vinny Perth elected to make seven changes to his team, they burst out of the blocks at the Bowl.
Seán Murray's header was nearly flicked home by Georgie Kelly, after Chris Shields' shot from the edge of the box was blocked by Liam Scales. Dundalk then scored two goals in a four first-half minutes to take total control of the tie.
They were extremely similar to one another. The first saw a Murray corner, from the left, headed home by Daniel Cleary from eight yards. And then, from a corner on the other side, Seán Hoare rose highest to finish past the returning Conor Kearns.
The Students offered little after their game plan to put everyone behind the ball failed so early in the game. They started the second-half brightly, with Liam Kerrigan persevering on the right wing, despite Dundalk's defensive solidity.
But the visitors had a third with 20 minutes to go, as Duffy, only on the pitch only a few minutes, burst in from the left, before smashing the ball into the net at the near post.
It was four as the game entered second-half stoppage time, when Georgie Kelly looped a header past Kearns and into the left corner. And Clearly completed the scoring as he headed home a cross at the back post shortly afterwards.
These two games are not ones that UCD manager Maciej Tarnogrodzki would have realistically targeted points in, but time is running out for his troops to perform a Houdini act, and avoid the drop. For Vinny Perth, it's surely a case of when, and not if, they are crowned champions once again.
