Teenager Ryan O'Kane scored a goal of the month contender to seal Dundalk’s victory at the UCD Bowl.
Leading through John Martin’s first-half strike and with UCD chasing the game late on, O’Kane struck in the fourth minute of time added on.
Collecting an Alfie Lewis pass, the 19-year-old got his head up and struck a stunning right-foot shot that screamed into the net off the underside of the crossbar to add to his first goal of the season in Friday’s derby win over Drogheda United.
Their second back-to-back wins of the season moves Stephen O’Donnell's Dundalk back up to fourth place in the table.
UCD remain three points adrift of Cork City at the bottom.
Dundalk utterly dominated the ball from the off, with O’Kane proving a menace to the UCD defence early on, the winger forcing a fine tip over save from Kian Moore in the College goal on four minutes.
Having taken the sting out of Dundalk’s early impetus, College settled to gradually play their way into the game, if labouring to trouble Nathan Shepperd’s goal.
After its promising opening, the game went flat until Dundalk thankfully sparked it to life again with a soft lead goal on 35 minutes.
The UCD marking was lax to say the least from O’Kane’s corner. Striker Martin, fresh from his late winner to down Drogheda four days ago, ghosted in completely unattended at the back post to score with the ball going in off his midriff.
📽️ | The screamers keep coming!
— League of Ireland (@LeagueofIreland) May 1, 2023
A terrific hit from Ryan O'Kane to wrap up the three points for Stephen O'Donnell's team! 🔥
UCD 0-2 Dundalk #UCDDUN | #LOI pic.twitter.com/I372alx7HL
An opportunity to double that lead was wasted two minutes before the interval.
Martin fed a loose ball through for the run of Rayhaan Tulloch who, despite showing clever feet to outfox a couple of defenders, couldn’t find the finish as he sliced his shot wide.
Dundalk thought they had got a second five minutes after the break when Connor Malley headed home an O’Kane free kick. Lurking in front of Moore, Archie Davies was flagged offside and it was disallowed.
It was an hour before UCD finally worked Shepperd for the first time, Danny Norris finding a pocket of space on the left to bring a good save from the Dundalk goalkeeper down to his left.
Chasing the game late on UCD might have levelled right on 90 minutes.
Substitute Jake Doyle, scorer of their late equaliser against Bohemians on Friday night, first saw his initial shot come back off defender Hayden Muller before he fired the rebound wide.
But O’Kane made sure of the three points for Dundalk with his moment of magic deep in stoppage time.
UCD: Kian Moore; Evan Osam, Jack Keaney, Adam Wells, Jess Dempsey; Dara Keane (Jake Doyle 74), Donal Higgins (Michael Gallagher 54); Ciaran Behan, Danny Norris (Divine Izekor 84); Alex Nolan (Harry O’Connor 84), Danu Kinsella-Bishop (Sam Clarke 54)
Dundalk: Nathan Shepperd; Archie Davies, Wasiri Williams, Hayden Muller, Darragh Leahy; Alfie Lewis, Connor Malley; Johannes Yli-Kokko (Patrick Hoban 65), Rayhaan Tulloch (Paul Doyle 88), Ryan O’Kane; John Martin (Robbie Benson 65; Keith Ward 69)
Referee: Sean Grant (Wexford)
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