DUNDALK's hopes of avoiding an embarrassing play-off to remain in the division were shattered at Oriel Park. Worse still for the home side, their performance against Cork raised serious doubts about their ability to overcome either Waterford or neighbours Drogheda in that play-off.

Dundalk's misery was witnessed by less than a couple of hundred spectators, the worst attendance that anyone could remember at the venue for a league game.

The home defence struggled throughout and fell apart completely at the start of the second half. Cork's opening score arrived in the 41st minute when veteran John Caulfield beat two Dundalk, defenders before slotting the ball home.

Dundalk's defence was at sixes and sevens for a corner kick taken by Ollie Cahill three minutes after the interval and big Damian O'Connell got two chances before he finally planted the ball in the Dundalk net for Cork's second.

Six minutes later, a good move down the right by Cahill set up an easy score for Hill and Dundalk's misery was compounded when O'Connell scored his second in the 52th minute after another corner kick.

Dundalk manager Eddie May pulled off both Stephen Napier and Jonathan Prizeman after that score and the substitution of Tom McNulty steadied the centre of the Dundalk defence to some extent.

Joe Hanrahan combined well on a couple of occasions with Brian Byrne, but they were not good enough to beat a confident Cork defence. Indeed, Dundalk were almost caught on a couple of other occasions by the quick-breaking Cork attack and were lucky not to concede further scores before the end.