Champions Dundalk ended a week of celebration with a comfortable 2-1 victory over Waterford FC at the RSC, putting a dent in the home side's hopes of finishing third in the Premier Division table.
Stephen Kenny's men reclaimed their crown with a 1-1 draw with St Patrick's Athletic last Friday night and goals from Patrick Hoban and Ronan Murray put them past Alan Reynolds' men, who came into the game safe in the knowledge they have qualified for European football next summer.
The game was slow to get going as a consequence of three minor injuries to players rather than the 10 changes on both sides, although the league's top scorer Patrick Hoban's movement was already troubling the Blues.
The striker couldn't thump a dropping ball beyond the wall of bodies between him and the goal while he watched another header drift wide after an inswinging Mountney cross within the opening quarter of an hour.
Waterford lacked intensity in possession throughout the opening half but the Lilywhites never punished them.
Patrick McEleney feigned his way past Noe Baba before the half hour mark but Niall Corbet comfortably palmed his curling, 25-yard effort wide and Hoban failed to find the target with a back-post header from the resulting corner.
Dane Massey nodded one onto the roof of the net shortly afterwards and Murray couldn't steer a Michael Duffy pull-back on target before the break after some good work out wide from the former Celtic winger.
Dundalk weren't as wasteful on the restart and deservedly took the lead within five minutes. Hoban's header had the power and direction to beat Corbet after Sean Gannon's cross found him isolated with Webster at the back post and the former Oxford United and Mansfield Town man's presence in the box again unsettled the Blues' defence three minutes later.
A looping ball from the left arrived at the feet of Mountney and the wide-man pulled back to Murray in the heart of the box. While he had an abundance of time and space, the midfielder could only hit a tame effort that still managed to trickle into the corner of the goal to double the lead.
The champion's lead would have been extended had Rory Feely failed to block Mountney's curling shot with ten minutes remaining while the Blues looked devoid of ideas in attack. They finally tested Gary Rogers as the game approached stoppage time when Dessie Hutchinson found an equaliser, neatly sweeping home Derek Daly's low cross for a consolation goal, although they couldn't snatch an unlikely equaliser during injury time.
Shamrock Rovers' late winner made Waterford's task of claiming third place from the Hoops less likely but given the talk of the town is of getting passports ready for next summer, the 2,487 fans in attendance won't be too disheartened by the result.
Waterford FC: Niall Corbet; Rory Feely, David Webster, Garry Comerford, Dylan Barnett; Bastien Hery; Noe Baba (Hutchinson, 69), Carlos Wilson (Daly, 57); Gavan Holohan; Izzy Akinade (Galvin, 57), Courtney Duffus.
Substitutes: Matthew Connor (GK), Paul Keegan, Derek Daly, Dean O'Halloran, Cory Galvin, Dessie Hutchinson, Renars Rode.
Dundalk: Gary Rogers; Sean Gannon, Brian Gartland, Sean Hoare, Dane Massey; Dean Jarvis (Poynton, 83), John Mountney; Ronan Murray, Patrick McEleney, Michael Duffy (Connolly, 76); Patrick Hoban (Kelly, 79).
Substitutes: Gabriel Sava (GK), Stephen Folan, Dylan Connolly, George Poynton, Pablo Cavalcante, Jake O'Connor, George Kelly.
Referee: Derek Tomney
