Dundalk's brilliant Bradley makes wasteful Finn Harps pay

Steven Bradley was once again the star of the show as the Stephen O'Donnell era at Dundalk got up and running with his first victory.

Ollie Horgan’s Finn Harps dominated the first-half exchanges but the on-loan Hibernian winger turned the game on its head with a superb goal a minute before the break before teeing up Sam Bone for a second within a minute of the restart.

The 19-year-old then made it four goals in three outings to add to his earlier strikes this season against Derry City and Bohemians with another cracking effort on 67 minutes to ensure O’Donnell his first win in the Oriel Park hot seat.

The result was harsh on a Harps side who had drawn their league opener away to UCD 72 hours earlier but they had no answer to the brilliance of Bradley and the experience the home side were able to spring from the bench at half-time to help turn the tide in the game.

The Ballybofey men had the better first-half chances and looked like they would take the lead on 13 minutes when Ethan Boyle capitalised on some loose passing in the home defence to set Filip Mihlajevic clear.

The Croat then rounded goalkeeper Nathan Shepperd but was denied his first goal in Irish football by a stunning sliding clearance off the line by Lewis Macari.

Mihlajevic then turned provider five minutes later when he was released on the right by Ryan Connolly but his cross was headed tamely wide by the inrushing Barry McNamee.

Connolly then went close to scoring himself twice in quick succession - firstly having a snap shot from the edge of the box pushed away by Shepperd before forcing the Welsh U21 international to claw the ball away from under his crossbar from an inswinging corner that looked destined for the net.

Mihaljevic then went close again on 31