Keith Ward heads Dundalk to victory against former club Sligo Rovers

Keith Ward struck a late winner against his old club as Dundalk beat Sligo Rovers in what was a tightly fought contest at the Showgrounds.

Ward kept his cool in the 84th minute of a game packed with chances to head Darragh Leahy's cross beyond Luke McNicholas to send the Louth side into fourth place in the Premier Division table.

Following two impressive performances in the capital against Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic, Sligo made two changes from that win over the Saints.

One of Rovers’ best so far this term, Fabrice Hartmann returned to the starting XI, while Faroese attacker Stefan Radosavljevic made his first start since a draw with Drogheda in April.

Unbeaten in four, Stephen O’Donnell made just one change from the win over UCD, with striker Pat Hoban returning to the starting team in place of John Martin.

With matching points records for both teams coming into this tie, both camps were looking for the points that would see them move with three points of the top three.

It was the visitors who started the quicker from the traps, although the Lilywhites failed to take advantage when the going was good.

Hoban fired over the Sligo crossbar with his back to goal seven minutes in as the hosts took their time to get settled.

Soon after they did, they almost took the lead, with Dundalk goalkeeper Nathan Sheppard pulling off a magnificent reaction save to deny Max Mata’s placed header from a Will Fitzgerald cross after Sligo hit their opponents on the counter.

Hoban nodded Archie Davies’ cross over McNicholas’ goal just short of the hour.

Rayhaan Tulloch, who netted Dundalk’s only goal in the last game between these teams, was denied by a decent stop from McNicholas on 32 minutes, the Ireland underage international pushing