Shamrock Rovers put their Europa League humiliation behind them in Budapest last Thursday to greatly boost their domestic title retention aspirations.
Rovers overcame the Dundalk challenge with a clinical counterattack at Tallaght Stadium.
Winning the top-of-the-table clash puts Stephen Bradley’s team seven points clear at the top, with one game in hand and on course for three titles in a row by extending their record total to 20.
“I’m delighted with the win,” Bradley said after goals from Aaron Greene, Richie Towell and Rory Gaffney sealed the points.
“We talked in the locker room on Thursday after the game that we knew this was THE game of the week and that we had to focus.
“We knew that Dundalk would come and attack us from behind Europe.
“I think the players handled it very well. We were quite comfortable and could very possibly have scored more, to be honest.”
Showing few signs of fatigue on the journey, Rovers should have been ahead as early as 40 seconds, captain Ronan Finn leaping over the top after Lee Grace’s superb diagonal ball hit Dundalk right from the back.
And although Dundalk enjoyed a period in which they locked Rovers deep in their own half, they badly unraveled on the counter on 13 minutes.
Dan Cleary played a long ball down the left for Gaffney’s run, who too easily ran over Robbie McCourt, took goalkeeper Nathan Shepperd off his line and put him on a layup for Greene to finish.
Gaffney then worked twice with Shepperd before Rovers doubled their lead in 34 minutes.
Dundalk thought they had leveled when John Martin got past Cleary to shoot past Alan Mannus only to be taken off for a foul on the Rovers defender.
Cleary sent a quick free-kick over the top for a run by Greene, who blasted a low cross to the far post for former Dundalk midfielder Towell to finish on goal.
Dundalk finished the half on the front foot with Rovers doggedly defending; Mannus saved twice as the ring shirts put their bodies on the line to thwart a sustained attack.
Dundalk thought they were back in the game just after the hour mark, but because of the brilliance of Mannus.
Substitute Keith Ward’s free kick seemed destined for the top corner only for the veteran former Northern Ireland goalkeeper to somehow touch it.
Three minutes later, Dundalk once again got rid of a scorching counter.
Greene used his pace to run to the left to square the ball for Gaffney to drill his shot into the corner of the net, only reward for another tough running display.
An inspired Mannus then had the last word with a series of terrific saves as he tipped Robbie Benson’s drive around a post before frustrating Ward again and then David McMillan to death.
Despite his cushion at the top, Bradley wasn’t drawn when asked if the league was all but won.
“No, it’s not. We’ve got ten games left, we knew this game was really important and we knew last week in Derry was important in terms of not losing the game.”
“The players have done very well, they have scored important points in the middle of European football.
“We just have to go and take care of our business now and see where it takes us.”
Dundalk head coach Stephen O’Donnell had few complaints.
“We gave away terrible goals,” O’Donnell acknowledged.
“We didn’t handle it well enough. We had good passes, but if we give away goals that bad, you’re going to lose games.”
“His game plan worked better than ours. We played a high line and we didn’t handle it well.
“It was a baptism of fire as far as remodeling the baseline goes, but our guys will get better with experience.
“The Rovers identified it, capitalized on it and both boxes were the difference.
“People will look at the scoreboard and say 3-0, but we started the game well and put a lot of players in good areas.”
Mannus; Hoare, Cleary (Ferizaj, 79), Grace; O’Neill, Towell; Finn (Farugia, 59), Watts (Kavanagh, 68), Lyon; Greene (Byrne, 68), Gaffney (Emakhu, 69).
Shepherd; Macari, Bone, McCourt (Ward, 26), Leahy (Mountney, 73); Lewis, Sloggett (Adams, 64); Benson, Bradley, O’Kane (Hauge, ht); Martin (McMillan, 64).
Rob Harvey (Dublin).
5,525
Source: www.irishexaminer.com