Dundalk close off season with away win against closest challengers Ramblers

Cobh Ramblers' Faruq Adegboyega and Dundalk's Eoin Kenny tussle for the ball during their SSE Airtricity League First Division clash at St Colman's Park. Picture: David Keane

Cobh Ramblers 1 Dundalk 2 

Rohan Vaughan got the winner as Dundalk closed off their season with a 2-1 victory over Cobh Ramblers at St Colman’s Park.

The QPR loanee hit the back of the net in the 87th minute and decided a game that opened with Dean Ebbe scoring from inside the area and Matthew Whelan equalising after the break.

The Ramblers are now moving onto the play-offs, where they will play Treaty United in the semi-finals over two legs.

It was a slow game that came to life when Ebbe hit the back of the net in the 36th minute.

It was 1-0 at the break and the second half began with Enda Minogue sliding into an onrushing Samuel Bellis.

The referee produced a yellow card, despite the goalkeeper being the only player back for Dundalk, while Cobh protested the decision.

The Ramblers equalised in the 80th minute with a Dylan McGlade shot that was knocked on for a simple finish by Whelan.

Dundalk had one more attack in them, and out of this came Vaughan’s winner with a blistering strike at the Liam McMahon Stand.

Meanwhile, Bray Wanderers Billy O'Neill scored four as his side ran out unanimous 5-1 winners at home to Kerry.

Two second-half goals for Treaty United - scored by Patrick Ferry and Mark Byrne - helped the Limerick unit to a 2-0 win away to Wexford.

A classic in Ballybofey saw Finn Harps and UCD dook out a seven-goal thriller in which UCD came out the better. A brace from UCD's Adam Brennan had the Dubs in great shape and a fourth on 50 minutes had it looking like a landslide but Harps fought back with two goals late on to make their Dublin opponents sweat.

Lastly, Longford Town fought back after conceding early to Athlone with two goals from Aaron Doran and Stefan Ugbesia settling it for the visitors in the second half.

COBH RAMBLERS: Oisin Barry; Faruq Adegboyega (Jonas Hakkinen 85), Lucas Curtin, Nolan Evers, John O’Donovan, Jason Abbott, Harvey Cribb (Ciaran Galvin 69), Matthew Whelan, Samuel Bellis (Oscar Ahern 69), Evan Deasy (Dylan McGlade 58), Mikey Carroll (Rhys Gourdie 85).

DUNDALK: Enda Minogue; Luke Mulligan, Vincent Leonard, Ethen Vaughan, Sean Spaight, Eoin Kenny, Andy Paraschiv, Norman Garbett, Keith Ward, Rohan Vaughan, Dean Ebbe.

Referee: Aaron O’Dowd