Dundalk (4) 5  - Miller 3' Kudzovic 16' Tipton 27' 44' 83'
Rovers (0) 1 - Twigg 60'
Airtricity League - Oriel Park - Monday 13th September 2010  

1 Alan Mannus
19 Danny Murphy
4 Craig Sives
5 Aidan Price
13 Pat Flynn 
15 Paddy Kavanagh
6 Stephen Rice (c)
7 Stephen Bradley
20 Billy Dennehy  
9 Gary Twigg
11 Neale Fenn

Substitutes:
8 James Chambers
for Flynn ht
18 Chris Turner for Bradley ht
23 Thomas Stewart
for Fenn 60'
17 Sean O'Connor

Chris Turner
Half-time substitute...

A night to forget in a wet and windy Oriel Park as Dundalk demolished the Hoops with four first half goals.

Once again the Hoops conceded an early goal as Miller, unmarked at the back post, headed in from a free-kick and although Alan Mannus got a hand to the ball he couldn’t keep it out.

The home side were playing with a stiff breeze and the incessant rain made for dreadful conditions. Still the home side weren’t complaining as Tipton had a shot blocked in the box and Murphy was on hand to make a fine defensive tackle on 12 minutes.

Rovers did force two corners in the 14^th minute but Mannus had to make a fine stop from Gaynor’s shot just before Kuduzovic made it 2-0 with a shot inside the area that went in off the post.

The Rovers defence never looked comfortable and when Kavanagh was dispossessed on 27 minutes they raided down the left and Tipton was on hand to stab the ball past Mannus.

A Rovers corner in the 34^th minute forced Cherrie to punch the ball away but disaster struck just before the break when Price failed to cut out Gaynor’s long ball and Tipton ran on to smash the ball past Mannus and into the roof of the net.

Rovers made two changes at half-time and started to make inroads on the Dundalk defence with Price’s ball and Twigg’s dummy allowing Fenn to run into the box but Cherrie advanced to block his shot.

Gary Twigg then shot across goal on 58 minutes after a Fenn through ball and two minutes later a long ball from Murphy was somehow missed by Cherrie and Twigg had the simplest of jobs to knock the ball into the empty net to give Rovers some hope.

However the home side continued to look dangerous on the break and Mannus made a decent save on 62 minutes just before sub Stewart just failed to connect with a long ball.

On 70 minutes a Dennehy corner was headed across goal by Sives and the ball fell for Chambers but he saw his stinging shot tipped over the bar by Cherrie. The resultant corner saw the home defence clear the ball off the line.

On 75 minutes Mannus atoned for his error in picking up a back pass to save low at his left-hand post from the free-kick. A minute later Chris Turner tried his luck with a shot from the edge of the box that went close.

Cherrie then made an outstanding save from Twigg’s header after a fine cross by Chambers. Rovers night of horror at the back was compounded on 83 minutes when the ball deflected off Rice and into the path of Tipton and he gratefully clipped the ball over Mannus for his hat-trick.

Rovers had two late chances to grab another consolation goal but Twigg fired over the bar and Turner’s shot just failed to hit the target. It was a night to forget for Rovers as their lead at the top of the table was cut to 4 points.