Captain John Mountney popped up with a superb 91st-minute winner to give Dundalk a huge SSE Airtricity Men's Premier Division win over Shamrock Rovers at Oriel Park.
The 31-year-old fired past Leon Pohls with his side first attempt on target of the night to close the gap at the bottom of the table to just three points following Drogheda Utd's dramatic late collapse at home to Galway Utd.
The winning goal, Mountney’s first at Oriel Park in five years, marked a brilliant end to a week of upheavel at the Co Louth side with both Head of Football Operations Brian Gartland and manager Noel King departing, the latter on health grounds.
This result will give the Lilywhites hope of avoiding the drop for as well as being their second win of the campaign, it was also a sixth successive clean sheet at home - a feat not achieved since by them since the start of the 2015 season.
While there were celebrations for the hosts, it was a hugely disappointing night for Shamrock Rovers who lost further ground in the SSE Airtricity Men’s Premier Division title race.
Stephen Bradley’s side were late arriving at Oriel and never really got going on a night when the two sides above them, Shelbourne and Derry City, both won.
They are now six points shy of Damien Duff’s tabletoppers with the Hoops on a run of just one win in their last seven - a worrying trend ahead of their match at home to second placed Derry City on Monday.
The kick-off at Oriel Park was delayed by half an hour due to the Rovers kit not arriving on time as a result of the traffic delays caused by the seven hour closure of the M50 earlier in the day due to a fatal road traffic accident.
The game then took a while to get going also with the first and only effort on target in the opening half arriving on 17 minutes when Ross Munro easily kept out Johnny Kenny’s effort at his near post.
Jack Byrne, starting his first game of the season, then scooped a free kick well over before Paul Doyle fired a long range effort just wide at the other end on 31 minutes.
Daryl Horgan then had two bites at the cherry to break the deadlock early in the second half but blazed over with his first attempt within a minute of the restart before dragging an effort wide on 51 minutes.
Doyle then curled an effort about an inch the wrong side of the left hand post two minutes later before Zak Johnson headed two chances in quick succession wide as the hosts piled on the pressure.
The Hoops introduced Neil Farrugia and Graham Burke in an effort to add more spark and the two linked up on 72 minutes when the latter collected a pass from the former UCD man on the edge of the box only to screw his shot wide in the end.
Burke would have another effort moments later but on this occasion fired well over.It looked like the game was petering out to a draw until Mountney popped up with a first-time finish past Pohls in stoppage time after a missed bicycle kick attempt from Sam Durrant to earn a huge win for Liam Burns’ side.
Dundalk: Ross Munro; Zak Johnson, Andy Boyle, Mayowa Animasahun; Archie Davies, Zak Bradshaw, Paul Doyle (Hayden Muller 74), John Mountney; Daryl Horgan, Jamie Gullan, Cameron Elliott (Sam Durrant 67).
Shamrock Rovers: Leon Pohls; Daniel Cleary, Roberto Lopes, Josh Honohan; Darragh Nugent, Sean Kavanagh (Aaron McEneff 74), Conan Noonan (Neil Farrugia 66), Jack Byrne, Trevor Clarke; Aaron Greene, Johnny Kenny (Graham Burke 66).
Referee: Alan Patchell (Dublin).
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