DUNDALK PUT ON a show to please the home fans as they comfortably cruised past a lacklustre Galway United side win a 4-1 victory at Oriel Park.
The away side had an early chance to break the deadlock as Padraic Cunningham turned inside Barrett on the edge of the box, after nine minutes, but Sava was equal to the task, saving low to his right.
David McMillan rattled the crossbar for the hosts a few moments later before Dundalk opened the scoring when Dean Shiels latched onto an inviting Ciarán Kilduff pass to roll the ball into the right hand corner of Winn’s net.
The lead was doubled in a more route-one fashion less than 10 minutes later, as Paddy Barrett found himself in space 25 yards from the Galway United goal and his low swerving shot found its way past ex-Lilywhite Conor Winn, despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to it.
It was the current Dundalk netminder who was next to be tested, as he palmed a Stephen Folan header out of his top corner to preserve his clean sheet on 27 minutes.
With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, Dean Shiels doubled his tally as he picked up the ball in midfield, played a one-two with Robbie Benson on the edge of the Galway box before clipping the ball past Winn from close range.
It was 3-1 early in the second half, as Connolly punished some slack defensive passing to slam past Sava from close range at the second attempt.
The rest of game featured little of note as both sides matched each other in midfield and a flurry of substitutions broke any tempo. The final nail in Galway United’s coffin being Ciarán Kilduff breakaway goal.
In the end, Dundalk recorded a comfortable victory while Galway United closed out the season having made scant progress on last year’s efforts.
Dundalk FC- Gabriel Sava; Seán Gannon, Paddy Barrett, Andy Boyle, Dane Massey; Daryl Horgan, Stephen O’ Donnell (Brian Gartland 63), Robbie Benson (Ciarán O’Connor 74), Dean Shiels (George Poynton 67), Ciarán Kilduff, David Mc Millan
Unused Subs- Gary Rogers, Keith Dalton, Michael O’Connor, Darren Meenan
Galway FC- Conor Winn; Killian Cantwell, Armin Aganovic, Stephen Folan, Colm Horgan; Gary Shanahan (Jesse Devers 78), Alex Byrne, Conor Sinnott (Conor Melody 58), Kevin Devaney; Ryan Connolly; Padraic Cunningham (Vinny Faherty 58)
Unused Subs- Kevin Horgan, Jesse Devers, Gary Kinneen, Jose Garcia
Referee- Derek Tomney
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