Bohemians 0 Dundalk 1
Ciarán Kilduff scored an 89th-minute winner to give Dundalk a fifth straight league win as the champions broke valiant Bohemians’ hearts in an intriguing game at Dalymount Park on Wednesday night.
The brilliance of Bohs’ goalkeeper Shane Supple looked to have frustrated Dundalk when he showed sublime agility to push away a header from Niclas Vemmelund from Michael Duffy’s 80th-minute corner.
But nine minutes later Kilduff met fellow substitute Jamie McGrath’s cross from the left to plant a precise header to the bottom far corner of Supple’s net as Dundalk can now focus fully on their Champions League clash with Rosenborg next Wednesday.
Despite neither goalkeeper being worked in the first half, a compelling contest saw Bohs’ tenacity smother much of Dundalk’s attacking effort.
And it was the home side who created the best opening of the first period on 28 minutes when Keith Ward was wise to a stray Chris Shields’s pass, cleverly skipped past Dane Massey, only to pull the ball back to no-one in the Dundalk area.
With chances remaining at a premium into the second half, Bohs stretched Dundalk on a swift counter attack on 63 minutes; Ward breaking on the right to pick out Dinny Corcoran whose looping header was over the bar before the late drama brought Dundalk their narrow victory.
BOHEMIANS: Supple; Pender (Hayes, 38 mins), Cornwall, O'Hora, Morris; Kavanagh, Sule (Akinade, 65 mins), Gannon, Fitzgerald; Ward (Morgan, 81 mins); Corcoran. DUNDALK: Rogers; Gannon, Gartland, Vemmelund, Massey; Benson, Shields; Mountney (McGrath, 79 mins), McEleney, Connolly (Duffy, 64 mins); McMillan (Kilduff, 81 mins). Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).
