League Report: Shamrock Rovers 1 - 2 Cork City

Two goals from Sean Maguire earned Cork City a valuable win against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium of Friday evening, in a result which extends City’s lead at the top of the table and leaves the Hoops trailing their rivals by nine points.

With Shamrock Rovers arguably needing a win more than their southern visitors they would have wanted to keep things tight in the opening stages. But it took Cork just seven minutes to take the lead and when they did it was on the back of a catastrophic error from goalkeeper Tomer Chencinski.

Jimmy Keohane nudged a ball towards centre forward Sean Maguire but Rovers defender Danny Devine looked to have sorted the problem, ushering the ball wide of the goal for Chencinski to gather. Gather it he did, stopping the ball on the end-line but then, inexplicably, leaving it behind for Maguire to collect. All the City hitman had to do was roll the ball into an empty net.

Rovers responded by playing the more progressive football, and exerted considerable pressure on Cork’s defence. But time and again their efforts were repelled by a City team that were not shy of playing the long ball out of defence. And why not when the ultimate recipient, Maguire, has such strength on the ball and is so capable of turning defence into attack through his hold up play?

With 38 minutes gone all Rovers had to show for their considerable possession was a well hit shot by Graham Burke that cleared Mark McNulty’s crossbar and a series of crosses, frees and corner kicks, none of which found their way through to the City custodian. But that changed when a Conor McCormack handball gifted Rovers a penalty.

Darren Meenan drifted a ball into the box towards Gary Shaw but McCormack’s interception was instantly deemed illegal by referee Jim McKell and Burke hammered the spot kick into the bottom right corner of the City net.

The second half began with Cork dominating possession while not doing anything particularly interesting with the ball. Little happened to get pulses racing until after the hour mark when the visitors began to give the ball away too often. With that Rovers’ tempo rose and with Burke being inventive on the ball and Ronan Finn beginning to exert some influence it was the home side that now looked the more threatening.

That threat was almost converted into a winner on 82 minutes during a spell of intense pressure on the visitor’s defence. McCormack conceded a free to the left of the area and Meenan’s delivery was met by Burke who clattered the bar from 20 yards out.

City did well to survive that passage of play but on 87 minutes they sprung a shock reversal when, having shown little sign of scoring all half, they went ahead.

Sean Maguire chased a through ball into the Rovers box and was bundled over by David Webster. The referee didn’t give anything initially but the assistant closest to the incident flagged and Mr McKell pointed to the spot. Maguire did the rest, burying the ball low and to the left with Chencinski gone the other way.

The final minutes involved an all out attack on the City goal by the massed ranks of Hooped players but there was to be no late reprieve and Shamrock Rovers suffered a defeat their efforts scarcely deserved. City meanwhile took their fifth successive win of the season to stay top of the Premier Division table.

Shamrock Rovers: Tomer Chencinski; Simon Madden, Daniel Devine, David Webster, Trevor Clarke; Darren Meenan (Michael O’Connor 90+1), Ronan Finn, David McAllister, Graham Burke, Ryan Connolly (James Doona 80); Gary Shaw (Sean Boyd 73).

Subs Not Used: Kevin Horgan (gk), Roberto Lopes, Sam Bone, Sean Heaney.

Booked: McAllister (20), Clarke (31), Devine (45+2), Meenan (88).

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Conor McCormack, John Dunleavy (Alan Bennett 70), Gary Delaney, Kevin O’Connor; Steven Beattie (Karl Sheppard 61), Garry Buckley, Gearoid Morrissey, Stephen Dooley (Conor Ellis 76); Jimmy Keohane; Sean Maguire.

Subs Not Used: Alan Smith (gk), Shane Griffin, Christian Nanetti, Achille Campion.

Booked: Bennett (82).

Referee: James McKell.

Attendance: 3,045

Extratime Man of the Match: Sean Maguire (Cork City).