Dundalk stroll past Malahide

Malahide United 0 Dundalk 4

The nine-time champions took an early lead when Gary Shanahan chipped over Pat Dunne on nine minutes after a Michael Rafter ball over the top put him through.

Malahide, with ex-Ireland international Glen Crowe up front, had good spells in the first-half but always looked vulnerable to a counter-attack. One such counter yielded a free-kick on the edge of the home side’s penalty area, which Mark Griffin struck well. Dunne spilled the wet ball, which dribbled into the bottom right corner and over the line to give the Lilywhites a commanding lead going into the break.

Malahide looked the better side for much of the second-half, but couldn’t quite break the vistors down.

Chris Shields had a penalty saved after 71 minutes, but Dundalk did eventually close the match out with a Lorcan Shannon goal five minutes later. The elusive winger capitalised on a defensive mix-up for an easy finish.

With Malahide down to 10 men after the sending off of Aidan O’Keefe for a lunging tackle on Rafter with 10 minutes left, substitute Bob McKenna completed the rout with a far-post finish in the dying seconds.

MALAHIDE UNITED: Dunne, Logan, O’Riordan, Butler, Perth, Doyle (Murphy [56), Higgins, McGinty (Cashin [74), Logan (Slattery [70), O’Keefe, Crowe.

DUNDALK: Cherrie, Foran, Shields, Osbourne, O’Brien, Mountney, McDonnell (Brady [65), Shannon, Rafter (Woods [85), Shanahan, Griffin (McKenna [85).

Referee: Jim McKell (Tipperary).