League Report: Athlone Town 0 - 3 Dundalk

Patrick Hoban scored two second half goals and Richie Towell added a third late on as Dundalk closed in on the league championship with victory away to Athlone.

A first half red card for Brian Shortall changed the complexion entirely and the Lilywhites took full advantage in remaining top of the table. Throughout, it was the title chasers who created much of the openings as they looked to take a decisive step in the direction of the Premier Division title.

On four minutes, Patrick Hoban fired at Ryan Coulter with a low strike on the left and the goalkeeper then pulled off an exceptional save to deny a powerful Brian Gartland header. The ex-Dundalk man was at it again to keep out Kurtis Byrne when he directed Sean Gannon’s low daisy cutter towards goal.

An incident-free 20 minutes that followed then gave way to a moment of controversy when Brian Shortall was shown a straight red card for putting his hand in the face of Dane Massey following an altercation by the side-line. Although the contact may have been light, Shortall did make contact with the Dundalk man’s face and was shown the line by Connolly.

Kurtis Byrne had time to flash one more Dundalk effort wide of the far post and Derek Doyle almost sent his side in with a dream lead before the whistle but his contact with Kealan Dillon’s cross found the wrong side of the post.

Just 30 seconds into the second half, Hoban found the right side of the post when Sean Gannon’s deflected cross sat up perfectly for him at the far post and he made no mistake to notch his 18th of the season. Barely 10 minutes later, he had number 19. Picking up a Darren Meenan pass, he skipped past Alan Byrne and fired to the net in one fluid movement to firmly put his side back top of the table. fter that it was essentially job done until Towell decided to add some sublime injury time extras.

A Meenan corner was sent spinning to him on the edge of the box and he met it first time with his instep and send a delightful effort nestling in the corner of the net although questions must be asked of a defence who misread the flight of the ball completely.

Athlone Town: Ryan Coulter; Brian Shortall, Alan Byrne, Derek Prendergast, Kevin Knight (Graham Rusk 62); Kealan Dillon, James O’Brien (Aidan Collins 86), Eric Foley, Ian Sweeney, Derek Doyle; Philip Gorman (Barry Clancy 78).
Subs not used: Aidan Collins, Mark Hughes, Declan Brennan, Stephen Dunne, Paul Skinner (GK).

Booked: Knight (6), Dillon (18).
Sent off: Shortall (38).

Dundalk: Peter Cherrie; Sean Gannon, Brian Gartland, Andy Boyle, Dane Massey; Chris Shields, Richie Towell; Darren Meenan, Kurtis Byrne (Marc Griffin 81), Daryl Horgan (Donal McDermott 70); Patrick Hoban (Stephen O’Donnell 86).
Subs not used: Mark Rossiter, Ruaidhri Higgins, Stephen O’Donnell, John Mountney, Gabriel Sava (GK).

Booked: Shields (16).

Referee: Tomas Connolly.

Attendance: 1,000 (estimate).

Man of the Match: Patrick Hoban (Dundalk).