Jon Daly savours winning return to Inchicore with Dundalk

Jon Daly took satisfaction from returning to Richmond Park with a win just weeks after being sacked by St Patrick's Athletic as he targeted more progress with Dundalk.

The Lilywhites secured their first away victory of the season after a manic opening half saw them lead 3-2 and the following 45 minutes finished scoreless.

The result moved Daly’s new side off the bottom of the table as the Saints – under former Ireland boss Stephen Kenny – now face the possibility of being dragged into the relegation mire.

It was the former Pat's boss who was victorious on this occasion, coming at a crucial time for his new employer given the pressure on to move away from tenth place.

Daly said: "Obviously you come with a game plan and thankfully it worked and we defended really well at the end and probably created some really good chances in the second half on the counter-attack.

"But from my point of view, I know it's three points, whether it's against Derry, Pat’s or Shels, it's three points. I had a fantastic two years here, I loved my time here, and I've made a lot of friends here, and obviously the fans were great with me, had a lot of success here, but that's gone, that's moved on, and it's now full focus on Dundalk and trying to do as much as I possibly can to help them.

"It's always nice to come back and play against your old team, and I probably wasn't expecting to be back here as quickly as I was when I left. Obviously I went back to Scotland to my family. I was supposed to be in Turkey right now, so they're obviously over there on holidays and I'm here. "

Daly has made an impressive start with his four points from the last week to move ahead of Drogheda United.

There was prolonged celebrations at full-time as their opening target