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Goals from James Brown and Luke Heeney within five minutes of the second half sealed Drogheda United’s return to the Premier Division as they beat Cabinteely 2-0 at Stradbrook on a night of drama in the SSE Airtricity League First Division. .
Having lost in the play-offs in each of the past two years, he scored a deserved fifth second-tier title for the Louth club as Tim Clancy’s team had too much on the night for Cabinteely, who played for an hour. with 10 men.
Despite the loss, his eighth in 11 games, Cabinteely held firm in last place.
FINAL TABLE
That, however, is up for grabs ahead of an independent arbitration hearing employed by the FAI at 10 a.m. Wednesday morning in connection with an appeal from Wexford that he had to miss four games for fielding an ineligible player.
If Wexford succeeds, Cabinteely would lose two points and his place in the play-offs would go to sixth-ranked Galway United.
Drogheda could have been ahead at 38 seconds in south Dublin, with Brandon Kavanagh’s close-range shot coming off Cabinteely’s crossbar.
Cabinteely’s hopes were dashed in the 32nd minute when central defender Jonathan Carlin was sent off after receiving a second yellow card in two minutes.
Right-back Brown put Drogheda ahead in the 58th minute with a low left-foot shot for his first goal for the club.
Midfielder Luke Heeney doubled that as a James Clarke cross headed home before Drogheda goalkeeper David Odumosu attacked a late Kevin Knight penalty.
Despite winning 1-0 away from Athlone Town thanks to a goal from winger Ryan Graydon, Bray Wanderers, five points ahead of Drogheda a week ago, had to settle for second place and a home game in the play- offs, from now on, against Cabinteely.
Evan Weir scored twice for UCD which tied Galway 2-2 to take third place and with it a home game against Longford Town.
Stephen Christopher gave Galway a lead in the 43rd minute with a goal that briefly put them into the play-off spots. Captain Shane Duggan then saved the tie with a last-minute tie.
Longford Town maintained their place in the play-offs despite losing 2-1 on the road in the last Wexford.
Dylan Grimes gave Longford an early lead. But Wexford responded in the second half with strikes from Karl Fitzsimons and Jack Doherty.
Cobh Ramblers, who needed to win and hope that two of the other three results would go well, was limited to a 0-0 draw against Shamrock Rovers II at St Colman’s Park.
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