Shelbourne produced one of their better displays of the season, and a candidate for goal of the season from Stephen Geoghegan, as they moved to second place in the table with a summary dismissal of Dundalk at Tolka Park last night.

Shelbourne started briskly, creating four chances in the opening quarter. Dessie Baker fouled a defender as he tried to get to a Tony Sheridan cross inside the first minute while Pat Scully might have expected to have done better when heading well wide four minutes later.

Then Dundalk goalkeeper, Steve Williams made a superb diving save from a 25-yard shot by Greg Costello. Shelbourne finally got the breakthrough two minutes into the second half when Geoghegan struck. Dispossessing Hoey near the half-way line, he ran at the stretched Dundalk defence before curling a delightful shot to the far corner of the net.

Dundalk had their best spell immediately afterwards, with Peter Withnell wasting their best opportunity when shooting wide on 51 minutes. Thereafter it was all Shelbourne. Mark Rutherford won a penalty after being pulled down on 63 minutes and Geoghegan converted.

Shelbourne: Gough; Costello, McCarthy, Scully, Neville; Baker, Sheridan, Campbell, Fenlon, Rutherford; S Geoghegan.

Dundalk: Williams; Reddish, Doohan, Brady, Crawley; Hoey, Carlyle, Melvin, McCoy; Withnell, Byrne. Subs: Wigg for Reddish (80 mins), Jauny for Doohan (88 mins).

Referee: M Tomney (Dublin).