First Division: 10-man Dundalk hang on to beat Kerry

Dean Ebbe's 25th-minute strike proved decisive as Dundalk made it three wins from three in their first ever meeting with Kerry FC to maintain their lead at the top of the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division table.

Ciarán Kilduff’s side had to do things the hard way in front of a sell-out crowd in Tralee to claim their third 1-0 win of the campaign, having played over an hour with 10 men following the sending off of Leo Gaxha against his home town club.

The Co Louth side had dominated up to the 35th minute dismissal with Ebbe’s first goal for his new employers no more than they deserved.

Kerry, who came into the game unbeaten, largely dominated in the second half but despite waves of pressure failed to find the goal that would have preserved their unbeaten start to the campaign.

Despite seven minutes of additional time, Dundalk held out for their third clean sheet of the campaign, to claim a win in the meeting of the two sides who were formerly owned by Boston-based businessman Brian Ainscough.

It was largely one-way traffic in the early stages with, Daryl Horgan, Sean McHale and Sean Keogh all going close for the visitors before they hit the front on 25 minutes.

After feeding the ball off to Horgan on the left, the former Republic of Ireland winger burst past Alex Dunne before squaring to Ebbe, whose effort beat Tim-Oliver Hiemer despite the goalkeeper getting a hand to it.

It took Kerry until the half hour mark to register a shot but after Carl Mujagazi’s effort had deflected wide, they perhaps should have equalised when the resulting corner fell to Niall Brockwell in the box only for the midfielder to fire over.

The game then turned in the home side’s favour on 35 minutes when Gaxha, who had gone close with a header three