David Cassidy’s sublime volley inflicted a first defeat of the season on Waterford United as Dundalk went three points clear at the top of the eircom League of Ireland First Division at Oriel Park.
Both sides went into this game with identical records from their five previous outings, but neither of them were willing to take any chances in the early stages.
In fact, it took until the 35th minute for the first real chance to arrive when Waterford’s Willie-John Kiely raced on to a long ball out of defence before heading past Chris Bennion.
The goalkeeper did manage to get a hand to the effort, however, and that allowed Ian Ryan enough time to get back to hook the ball clear.
Ryan himself went close to opening the scoring a minute before the break when he got on the end of David Crawley’s free from the left, but he couldn’t keep his header down as a good chance went abegging.
Dundalk slowly began to up their game after the restart and they should have taken the lead on the hour mark when Jamie Duffy’s cross from the right picked out Trevor Vaughan unmarked at the edge of the six yard box.
However, the veteran striker took his eye off the ball at the vital moment and failed to make any contact whatsoever.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 63rd minute, when David O’Connor’s cross from the left was met first time by Cassidy. His volley rifled past the helpless Packie Holden.
John Gill’s side had a great chance to double their advantage two minutes later, but substitute Tiarnan Mulvenna blazed over.
Dundalk: Bennion; Flanagan, Lynch, Ryan, Crawley; Duffy (Marney, 89 mins), Crowley, Cassidy, O’Connor; Vaughan (Farrell, 77 mins), Martin (Mulvenna, half-time).
Waterford United: Holden; Fitzgerald, Breen (Hayes, 53 mins), Browne, Clarke; Dunphy, Fitzpatrick (Mulcahy, 66 mins), Watters (Brunell, 72 mins), Foley; Sullivan, Kiely.
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).
