Dundalk hit five past old rivals Cork City in rout

Airtricity League Premier Division

Dundalk 5 Cork City 0

Dundalk and Cork City games used to be so much at the top of the table but this latest meeting at the Oriel Park had a different meaning for the two former kingpins of Irish football.

Both sides needed a victory badly for different reasons but in the end it was the Louth men who prevailed in record breaking fashion to ease the pressure on manager Stephen O’Donnell and keep their slim European hopes alive.

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 an inevitability 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, Daryl Horgan then turned provider for the game’s opening goal on 18 minutes when his free kick from the left picked out Hayden 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