Mark Quigley came off the bench to score on his Dundalk debut and seal a 3-1 victory over local club Muirhevnamor at Oriel Park on Sunday afternoon, after Johnny Breen and Keith Ward had cancelled out Mickey O’Kane’s early opener with goals either side of the break. The Lilywhites were stunned by that seventh-minute strike from O’Kane, who played for the club in 2005, but they gradually grew into the game, and Breen and Ward had easy tasks to put their side ahead, before Quigley scored a fine individual effort late on after Dundalk had dominated the second half.
O’Kane opener
Manager Ian Foster again handed the captain’s armband to Simon Madden, and decided to pair youngsters Breen and Marc Griffin up front. And it was Breen who almost opened the scoring inside two minutes when he connected with Dean Bennett’s free, but his overhead kick cleared the crossbar. Seconds later, Muirhevnamor forced a corner and from it the ball fell to Ken Larkin whose effort crashed back off the post. Shortly after and they had the lead, as O’Kane found himself one-on-one with Paul Murphy, and he finished well, his shot going in off the same upright that Larkin had hit moments earlier. Before the quarter-hour mark, O’Kane created another opportunity for himself but this time, from a much more difficult position, he shot straight at Murphy.
Breen equaliser
Muirhevnamor provided Dundalk with their most physical test yet in pre-season and were good value for their lead, which they could have doubled on 26 minutes when Michael Bergin sent O’Kane free down the left and his cross to the back post was headed over by Gary Clarke. On the half-hour, Griffin shot high and wide of the target from a difficult angle, but within two minutes his strike partner Breen equalised, as he rolled the ball into an empty net from eight-yards after ‘keeper David Cooney had blocked the initial effort. Muirhevnamor could have restored their advantage on 36 minutes when Bergin was twice denied. Firstly, his goal-bound header was pushed over the bar by Murphy, before from the resulting Ray McCann corner, another header came back off the post.
Dundalk dominant
Before the break, Clarke again headed over, this time from a John Smyth cross, but a Daniel Kearns free-kick on the stroke of half-time, which Cooney did well to hold, was a sign of what was to come. Dundalk took the lead within three minutes of the restart as Cooney this time failed to hold a Kearns shot, with Ward tapping in to score his first goal for the club. Breen then hit the post before good link-up play between Griffin and Breen left the latter with an eye of goal, but he shot wide. Past the hour-mark, Quigley saw his header cleared off the line following a Ross Gaynor corner, and in the same play Smyth did brilliantly to head off the line following ping-pong in the Town End box. The Lilywhites were in complete control of possession but it took until five minute from time to make certain of the win, as Quigley danced around the Muirhevnamor defence before planting the ball in the bottom corner from eight-yards.
MUIRHEVNAMOR FC (4-5-1): David Cooney (Stephen McGuinness 87); Ray McCann, Ken Larkin, Adrian Rafferty, John Smyth (Gerard Bradley 64); Gary Clarke (Conchuir Mulvenna 73), Shane O’Brien (Seán Conlon 83), Chris Caulfield, Thomas McShane (Aaron Grimes 73), Michael Bergin (Conor Murphy 64); Mickey O’Kane (Ciarán Boland 83).
Goal: M O’Kane (7).
Booked: K Larkin (35), M O’Kane (75).
Unused Subs: None.
DUNDALK FC (4-4-2): Paul Murphy (Peter Cherrie HT); Simon Madden ©, Michael Hector, Gareth Whelan, Nathan Murphy; Daniel Kearns, Dean Bennett, Keith Ward (Stephen McDonnell 60), Ross Gaynor; Johnny Breen (Jason Byrne 60), Marc Griffin (Mark Quigley 60).
Goals: J Breen (32), K Ward (48), M Quigley (85).
Unused Subs: Brian Begley, Stephen Hutchinson, Michael Osobe.
