Bohemians 0 Dundalk 1
Dundalk moved to within four points of Premier Division leaders Shamrock Rovers with a gutsy triumph over Bohemians at Dalymount Park.
The decisive moment of the game arrived in first half stoppage-time, when Tadhg Ryan palmed the ball into his own net under pressure from Lilywhites substitute John Martin.
It was unclear if Martin had got a touch before the Bohs netminder, but his presence certainly helped Dundalk to claim the only goal of the contest.
The visitors suffered an early setback in this contest as centre-forward Patrick Hoban was forced off through injury on 12 minutes. His place in attack was taken by Martin, who almost immediately made his way into referee Adriano Reale’s notebook for a challenge on Bohs skipper Ciaran Kelly.
The search for a breakthrough goal had looked set to continue into the second half, until disaster struck for Bohs at the end of the opening period. Ryan seemed ideally placed to gather a left-wing cross from Gypsies full-back Darragh Leahy, only for Martin to force an error from his opponent.
The Bohs faithful felt Ryan was unfairly impeded by the Lilywhites attacker, but a pivotal decision did go the way of the hosts eight minutes after the resumption as Dundalk centre-half Andy Boyle was red-carded for a last-man tackle on the raiding Ethon Varian.
The Louth men coped admirably with their numerical deficiency, but were coming increasingly under the cosh as the action progressed.
Ryan Burke and Varian were both close to grabbing a Bohs equaliser, before Jonathan Afolabi (a recent recruit from Celtic) fired against the right-hand post on 87 minutes. Despite having an additional eight minutes to deny Dundalk the three points on offer, the latter’s effort was the closest they came to securing a share of the spoils.
Bohemians: Ryan; Dehl (Feely, 46 mins), Kerr, Kelly, Burke (Ogedi-Uzokwe, 83 mins); Doherty (Levingston, 46 mins), Clarke; Coote, O’Sullivan (Afolabi, 60 mins), McDaid (Burt, 72 mins); Varian.
Dundalk: Shepperd; Macari, Bone, Boyle, Leahy; Lewis, Sloggett; Bradley, Adams (McCourt, 54 mins), O’Kane (Benson, 78 mins); Hoban (Martin, 12 mins).
Referee: A Reale (Kildare)