First half double maintains Dundalk's lead
Thursday 5th July 2007, 10:58 pm
Robbie Doyle, scored on his return to Irish football.
Photo by Tom Carey.
5th July 2007
eircom League of Ireland First Division
Dundalk 2
Robbie Doyle 35
Aidan Lynch 40
Kildare County 0
Oriel Park
Robbie Doyle waited just 35 minutes into his return to Irish football before he fired home his first goal for new club Dundalk. Aidan Lynch also hit his first goal for the club as the First Division leaders ran out 2-0 winners against Kildare County at Oriel Park.
A rampant Dundalk struggled in front of goal in the early going. Lynch missed from a good position as did Thomas McGauley while Kildare had a couple of close shaves. One of those saw Alan Byrne head against his own crossbar after a Dundalk corner kick.
Dundalk finally got their noses in front against the Thoroughbreds on 35 minutes when Doyle pounced on a sloppy back pass to nip in and score.
They were 2-0 up just five minutes later when Lynch got the vital touch and the division leaders never really looked back from that point on.
It didn't all go Dundalk's way and they lost goalkeeper Chris Bennion to a red card when he handled outside the area in the closing ten minutes.
Kildare's Alan McDermott had lost the ball to Doyle for the opening goal and he capped a miserable night when he picked up his second booking on 89 minutes to see both sides finish with ten men.
Dundalk : Bennion, Flanagan, Lynch, McGauley, Crawley, O'Connor, Marney, Perth, C McArdle (R Dunne 68), Smyth (Gallagher 81), Doyle (Vaughan 73).
Kildare County : Cassidy, Malone, McDermott, P Byrne (Rigney 54), Stapleton, Cooling, Donnelly (McCrossan 46), A Byrne, Walsh (Barrett 60), Gorman, McDonald.