Hoban sparks fightback as Lilies go third
DUNDALK leapfrogged St Patrick’s Athletic into third place in the Premier Division with an impressive 3-1 victory over Bohemians at Oriel Park last night. However, it was far from as comfortable as the scoreline might suggest as it was Bohs who took an early lead through Ciaran Kelly after 15 minutes and held the one-goal advantage until nearly 10 minutes into the second half. That was when Patrick Hoban grabbed an equaliser after a marked increase in tempo by the home team. Dundalk kept the heat on and sealed the victory with goals from Robbie Benson and Paul Doyle on 71 and 79 minutes, respectively. Elsewhere, UCD secured their first victory of the season with a gritty 1-0 win away to Finn Harps. In what was an incredibly tense bottom-of-the-table clash at Finn Park, both sides made plenty of errors, with the game not decided until the 83rd minute when Liam Kerrigan headed in from a cross by Evan Cafffrey. The win does not lift the Students off the bottom of the table but they are now only two points behind Harps. Last night’s other game saw Damien Duff’s Shelbourne scrape a win at home to Drogheda United courtesy of Sean Boyd’s only goal in a dour encounter.
■ THE Polish city of Lodz has been confirmed as the neutral venue for the Republic of Ireland’s Nations League game against Ukraine on Tuesday, June 14. The top seeds in Group B1 will also play against Armenia in Lodz. Avoiding a trip to Kyiv should help Stephen Kenny and his players in their ambition to seek promotion to League A. Kenny will name his squad on May 25 for the busy four-game schedule which starts away to Armenia on June 4, followed by home games against Ukraine on June 8 and Scotland on June 11.