Finn Harps are without a win in 11 games after falling to a 3-0 defeat to Dundalk at Oriel Park in the Premier Division.
Ollie Horgan’s side were 2-0 down after six minutes, with Darragh Leahy and Keith Ward scoring early on for the Lilywhites.
Steven Bradley made it 3-0 before half-time with a quality piece of skill as Dundalk would move up to 2nd.
Finn Harps made two changes from the side that were sucker punched by Derry in added time, as Liam McGing made his debut and Filip Mihaljević came back into the starting side, for Harry Nicolson and Élie N’Zeyi.
Dundalk meanwhile made two changes from their 1-1 draw at Richmond Park against St. Patrick’s Athletic, as Steven Bradley and Paul Doyle came in for Mark Connolly and Robbie Benson.
Photography by Joe Boland, North West Newspix.
Dundalk began on the front foot and Mark Anthony McGinley could only force a Leahy cross wide for a corner.
The corner was cleared out for another corner and when Ward played it short to Bradley, he shot but it was blocked to Leahy who smashed it past the sea of green and McGinley inside three minutes.
And in the 6th minute, it would be 2-0 to Stephen O’Donnell’s side.
Lewis Macari found Pat Hoban and his flick was deflected off McGing to Greg Sloggett who raced down the right.
Sloggett squared the ball to Ward and the midfielder had an empty net to convert into.
Both teams then had chances, with Hoban curling just wide from the edge of the box and minutes later he was played in but let the ball run across his body and McGinley swept up the danger.
For Harps, Rob Jones headed just over from an Ethan Boyle throw, while a Ryan Rainey shot was only parried by Peter Cherrie but well defended by Macari with Jones lurking.
Mihaljević then got in behind Cherrie and crossed looking for Donelon but Greg Sloggett got back on time.
Straight away at the other end Sloggett found Bradley who ran down the right, cut in on his left foot and curled the ball towards the top corner over McGinley to make it 3-0 at half-time.
Harps had the first proper chance of the second half when Donelon”s free kick was volleyed by Conor Tourish, who connected brilliantly but Cherrie was equal to the volley.
Then when Daniel Kelly got to a long ball before McGinley, he played it back to Ward but his curling effort came back off the post.
Hoban almost had Bradley in for his second but the pass was just inches off, and quickly after Hoban couldn’t connect with a header.
The game began to slow as both sides made a host of changes.
Finn Harps stay 9th on goal difference as UCD lost 2-0 at home to Shelbourne, but the Harps have had their goal difference advantage reduced to eight better than the Students.
Donegal Town man and UCD captain Jack Keaney was sent off for taking down Jack Moylan, and former Finn Harps man Sean Boyd converted the penalty.
Dan Carr made it 2-0 in added time to confirm the win for Damien Duff’s side.
Dundalk: Peter Cherrie; Lewis Macari, Andy Boyle, Sam Bone, Darragh Leahy; Greg Sloggett, Paul Doyle, Steven Bradley, Keith Ward, Daniel Kelly; Pat Hoban.
Subs: Ryan O’Kane and Joe Adams for Kelly and Ward (67 mins), John Mountney and John Martin for Macari and Hoban (76 mins), David McMillan for Bradley (85 mins)
Finn Harps: Mark Anthony McGinley; Ethan Boyle, Rob Slevin, Conor Tourish, Liam McGing, Regan Donelon; Barry McNamee, Ryan Connolly, Ryan Rainey, Filip Mihaljević; Robert Jones.
Subs: Harry Nicolson and Mark Timlin for Rainey and McNamee (66 mins), Dylan Duncan for Donelon (74 mins), José Carrillo for Jones (83 mins)
