Ramblers rocked by old boy Izzi
 FORMER Cobh Ramblers striker Tony Izzi returned to St. Colman’s Park yesterday to haunt his old club as his brace of goals finally killed off their faint promotion hopes.
 Izzi was in tremendous form as he grabbed a goal in either half as Cobh struggled throughout the match to make any impact on proceedings.
 After a rather mundane opening 30 minutes during which neither side particularly impressed, Dundalk finally broke the deadlock when a David Ward shot was parried by Cobh goalkeeper John Donegan and when the ball spilled loose there was an air of inevitability around the ground as Izzi pounced to blast to the back of the net.
 Dundalk comfortably saw out the last five minutes of the half and they killed this game off as a contest two minutes after the interval when a ferocious David Crawley free cannoned back off the crossbar and Paul Whelan stabbed the ball home.
 Following Dundalk’s second goal any fight that Cobh had left evaporated. The Ramblers played second fiddle to the visitors for the remainder of the game and can count themselves lucky not to have been beaten by an even greater scoreline. Izzi should have netted his second on the hour mark when an ill advised back pass from John Murphy put his keeper under pressure from Ward but when he squared for his striking partner Izzi blasted high and over with the goal at his mercy.
 Dundalk were reduced to 10 men eight minutes later when Ward was sent off for his second bookable offence after a challenge on Kenny O’Rourke.
 Cobh, however, couldn’t make their numerical superiority count and they fell further behind five minutes from time with the best goal of the afternoon. Izzi came into possession 10 yards outside the area, breezed past two Cobh defenders before unleashing an unstoppable shot to the top corner of the net from 25 yards to secure the three points and rub salt in the Cobh wounds.
©The Examiner 31/01/00