Dundalk kept their slim European hopes alive and eased the pressure on boss Stephen O'Donnell with a record-breaking win over a bitterly disappointing Cork City side at Oriel Park.
Former Republic of Ireland international Daryl Horgan, who scored 19 goals in 76 appearances for Cork in his spell at Turner’s Cross over a decade ago, proved the star of the show with the assist for Hayden Muller’s opener.
He then scored the second himself before seeing his header turned into the net by Cian Coleman to leave the Louth men sitting pretty at 3-0 up at half-time.
Sam Durrant and John Martin then completed the rout with further goals in the second half to give O’Donnell a much-needed win on the back of four disappointing defeats in-a-row, including a 4-0 FAI Cup thumping away to Galway Utd 10 days ago.
While the Lilywhites will face much tougher tests than this, the result keeps them in contention for a European place as they sit just three points behind Bohemians in fifth and four off Shelbourne in fourth - both of whom they still have to face in the closing five matches of the campaign.
For Cork City and Liam Buckley, this was as bad as they have been in some time. They needed to win this game in hand to keep the pressure on Sligo Rovers, who now sit nine points clear of them with just five games to go.
That means a relegation play-off is looking almost inevitable for last season’s First Division winners, but they’ll need to find form from somewhere if they’re to avoid an immediate return to the lower ranks.
Having flashed a shot wide on the quarter-hour mark, Horgan then turned provider for the game's opening goal on 18 minutes when his free kick from the left picked out Muller, who got up above Ally Gilchrist to head home just his second career goal.
Horgan then ended a run of 2,540 days since his last goal at Oriel Park, also against Cork, when he finished past Ollie Byrne from close range following a mistake by Conor Drinan on 27 minutes to make it 2-0.
Horgan was then involved in the third goal on 33 minutes when his header back across goal was turned into his own net by Coleman, who had also scored an own goal in his side’s defeat to Shelbourne on Friday.
The visitors did go close to pulling one back in first-half stoppage time when Ruairi Keating broke in from the right, but his effort came back off the inside of the post before Nathan Shepperd denied Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh’s follow up header.
Malik Dijksteel also went close with an effort from 10 yards out within three minutes of the restart but Dundalk began to turn the screw once again after that.
After Durrant had an effort blocked by Coleman, his follow up cross was headed on to the top of the crossbar by Patrick Hoban.
Darren Brownlie and Hoban then both headed over from separate Horgan deliveries before Durrant was denied by Byrne on 54 minutes. The ex-Sheffield Wednesday man was not to be denied his first career goal a minute later, however, as he collected Hoban’s pass wide on the left before cutting across the penalty box past three City defenders before firing right footed to the bottom right-hand corner.
Dundalk went close to a fifth on 75 minutes when Martin slipped substitute Cameron Elliott in on the right but his effort came back off the butt of the post.
Keating almost got a consolation nine minutes later when his header was touched onto the crossbar by Shepperd but it was Dundalk who would have the final say as Martin headed home the fifth three minutes from time from Archie Davies’ cross to complete the rout.
Dundalk: Nathan Shepperd; Archie Davies, Greg Sloggett, Darren Brownlie (Darragh Leahy 77), Hayden Muller; Johannes Yli-Kokko (Senan Mullen 77), Paul Doyle (Alfie Lewis 45), Daryl Horgan (Ryan O’Kane 62); John Martin, Patrick Hoban (Cameron Elliott 62), Sam Durrant.
Cork City: Ollie Byrne; Aaron Bolger, Cian Coleman, Ally Gilchrist, Conor Drinan (Josh Honohan 56); Andrii Kravchuk (Oran Crowe 81), Ben Worman (Gordon Walker HT); Cian Bargary, Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh (Cian Murphy HT), Malik Dijksteel (Jaze Kabia 56); Ruairi Keating.
Referee: Paul McLaughlin (Monaghan).
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