This was the ideal opening to the proceedings for the visitors, but they suffered a set-back when Gavin Peers was show a straight red-card for a heavy tackle on Gypsies’ centre-forward Ismahil Akinade after 22 minutes.

However, in his absence Sligo doubled their lead with a neat 27th-minute finish by Liam Martin. The gauntlet was now being thrown down to the hosts, but they did force their way back into contention with a neat Akinade goal just before the interval.

This injected much needed life into the challenge of Keith Long’s charges for the start of the second half, and even though Sligo were doing their best to limit the attacking threat of Akinade, the Nigerian-born striker had a scrambled effort cleared off the line on 71 minutes.

However, just when time appeared to be running out for the home team, Byrne found the back of the Sligo net with a 88th-minute free-kick. This boosted the spirits of the Dalymount men and they completed an impressive comeback when Best fired home two minutes into stoppage-time.