Sean Maguire runs riot at Oriel Park

Dundalk 0 Cork City 3: Here at Oriel Park, on a balmy evening on the brink of the summer break, was a tantalising meeting between this season’s unstoppable force and the last three seasons’ immovable object.

Something had to give — and it wasn’t Cork City’s unbeaten record.

As the irrepressible Sean Maguire scored three times to bring his total to 16 in the league, there was an inescapable sense of the changing of the guard, that what a crowd of 3,643 was witnessing was champions Dundalk making way for champions elect Cork City.