Report: Bohemian FC 1-2 Dundalk FC

Eoin Kenny's stunning late winner sent Dundalk above Bohemians and into third place in the SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division, capping a gritty, character-filled night at Dalymount Park where Ciarán Kilduff's side had to do it the hard way.

Reduced to ten men in the closing stages and forced into a reshuffle after losing Danny Mullen to a injury, Dundalk dug in, weathered the storm, and let one moment of magic settle it.

Bohemians made the early running and could have been out of sight inside the opening few minutes. Harry Vaughan rattled the post with barely 78 seconds on the clock, and Cian Byrne made the breakthrough soon after, rising above the Dundalk defence to head home Dayle Rooney's corner.

It would have been easy for heads to drop. Instead, Dundalk responded with the same front-footed approach that has carried them through their first season back in the top flight. The leveller came midway through the half, scrappy in its build-up but no less welcome: Patrick Hickey's attempted clearance of Eoin Kenny's clipped ball forward fell loose, Ronan Teehan pounced and squared it across goal, and Danny Mullen finished calmly.

Enda Minogue kept the sides level going into the break with a smart save to deny Vaughan, who had carried much of Bohs' early threat.

The game swung one way and then the other after the restart. Bohemians survived a let-off when a misplaced Hickey backpass nearly gifted Mullen a tap-in, only for the defender to scramble back and clear off the line. Dundalk had their own near-miss when Mullen, having forced a save out of Paul Walters at close range, cracked the rebound off the crossbar — his last meaningful act of the night before a knee injury forced him off.

Dundalk were then handed a fresh test when Declan McDaid was shown a second yellow card, leaving Kilduff's side to see out the closing stages with ten men against a Bohemians team chasing an equaliser and increasingly desperate to avoid back-to-back damaging results following last week's heavy defeat to Derry City.

Kenny settles it

It needed something special to break the deadlock, and Eoin Kenny — son of St Patrick's Athletic manager Stephen Kenny and a player who has been a model of consistency for Dundalk this season — duly provided it. Picking the ball up wide, he shifted past two Bohemians defenders with a drag-back on the edge of the box before finishing high past Walters to send the away end into raptures.

It was a fitting way to settle a contest Dundalk had largely controlled in the second half, and one that leaves the Lilywhites firmly in the mix near the top of the table as their first season back among the elite continues to take shape.

Bohemians: Paul Walters; Cian Byrne (Jordan Flores 74), Patrick Hickey, Sam Todd; Darragh Power, Dawson Devoy, Sadou Diallo (Niall Morahan 62), Dayle Rooney (Markuss Strods 77); Ross Tierney, Harry Vaughan (Connor Parsons 62); Douglas James-Taylor (Colm Whelan 62).

Dundalk: Enda Minogue; Keith Buckley (Declan McDaid 74), Rob Cornwall, Bobby Burns, JR Wilson; Aodh Dervin, Shane Treacy (Tyreke Wilson 45); Eoin Kenny, Ronan Teehan, Daryl Horgan (Harry Groome 81); Danny Mullen (Gbemi Arubi 70).

Referee: Paul McLaughlin (Monaghan)