Two goals inside three minutes from Louie Annesley and Patrick Hoban saw Dundalk shock Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park to put a dent in the champions' hopes of retaining their Premier Division title.
Stephen O’Donnell’s side were immense from start to finish but finally made their dominance count when Gibraltar international Annesley - who featured against the Republic of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium earlier this month - fired them in front with a stunning strike on 74 minutes.
The club’s record goalscorer Hoban then headed in a second just three minutes later to inflict just a second away defeat of the campaign on a Rovers side who had only conceded five goals away from home all season prior to this.
Stephen Bradley’s side never really got going and while Derry City were unable to capitalise on their slip-up having drawn away to Shelbourne, St Patrick’s Athletic have closed their lead at the top of the table from seven points to four.
The hosts dominated the early exchanges but it was one of their four former players in the Rovers line-up who almost opened the scoring with what would have been a calamitous own goal on 21 minutes. Sean Hoare, who made 125 appearances for the Lilywhites between 2017 and 2020, was under little pressure at the edge of his own box when he deftly headed back to his goalkeeper, not realising that Leon Pohls was coming for it.
The ball subsequently crept past the German but Hoare was able to get back and scramble it off the line at the expense of a corner, which was headed into the side-netting by Hoban.
Another former Dundalk player, Sean Gannon, thought he had broken the deadlock in Rovers' first meaningful attack on 33 minutes but his tap-in was ruled out for offside after Nathan Shepperd had spilled Johnny Kenny’s initial effort.
Hoban had another half chance from a corner five minutes after the restart but couldn’t direct it goalwards.
Rory Gaffney was introduced just after the hour mark to provide some attacking threat for the visitors and he almost delivered it on 67 minutes when he found space inside the box to get a shot away only to see it curl just wide of the right hand post.
The champions were rocked on 74 minutes, however, when the Louth men hit the front. Annesley was allowed break to the edge of the area after an exchange of passes with Greg Sloggett before letting fly with a brilliant left foot shot to the top left hand corner.
Within three minutes, Dundalk doubled their advantage with Hoban getting on the end of a superb inswining free kick from Keith Ward to head past Leon Pohls to the bottom right hand corner.
Rovers did attempt to fight their way back into it after that but Daniel Cleary headed over from a Dylan Watts corner on 84 minutes before Gaffney had an effort pushed away by Shepperd three minutes later.
Dundalk: Nathan Shepperd; Archie Davies, Hayden Muller, Louie Annesley, Darragh Leahy, Robbie McCourt (Paul Doyle 86); Johannes Yli-Kokko (Keith Ward 72), Greg Sloggett, Connor Malley, Daniel Kelly (Ryan O’Kane 91); Patrick Hoban (John Martin 86).
Shamrock Rovers: Leon Pohls; Daniel Cleary, Roberto Lopes, Sean Hoare; Sean Gannon, Dylan Watts, Markus Poom, Richie Towell (Liam Burt 71), Sean Kavanagh; Aaron Greene (Graham Burke 71), Johnny Kenny (Rory Gaffney 62).
Referee: Paul McLaughlin (Monaghan).
