Cork City 3 - 0 Mervue United

• Alan Smith
• Thu, May 26 2011


Cork City have moved back to the top of the Airtricity League First Division after a commanding performance over Mervue United at Turner’s Cross on Thursday night.

Tommy Dunne’s side made no mistake in capitalising on Shelbourne’s week off and will now go into Monday night’s trip to Limerick with their unbeaten run stretching to 12 league games. They were comfortable in all departments against the heavily depleted Galway side and there was no doubt about the result from the moment they opened the account in the seventh minute.

City went into this game with the same side that came from behind to defeat Wexford Youths last week, but with Mervue heavily depleted due to a host of injuries and the awkwardness of a Thursday night kick-off meaning some of the squad had to stay at home due to other commitments, they were given little chance of grabbing a result against the promotion challengers.

Nonetheless, they were still buoyed by the credible 1-1 draw they managed in the opening game at Fahy’s Field back in March, and they attempted to repeat the same game plan on this outing. They were carved open inside the opening minute though, as Danny Murphy’s long ball forward was taken down by Davin O’Neill. He strolled past Kevin Crehan but after squaring to Vinny Sullivan, the striker somehow managed to hook the ball over from just two yards out.

It didn’t take them long to break the deadlock though, as seven minutes in Davin O’Neill’s cross from the left was too long, leaving Gearóid Morrissey to swing the ball back towards the box on the opposite flank. His pass reached Graham Cummins, whose original effort was blocked by James Casserly. Thankfully for the home side Cummins was given a second bite of the cherry, and he tucked the ball into the left corner.

Mervue did have some decent spells of possession, but the City rearguard of Gavin Kavanagh and Kalen Spillane were overpowering the away team’s attack with ease. The home side’s biggest worry was actually the kicking of Mark McNulty, particularly in the swirling wind.

Sullivan almost made amends for his earlier miss when Eoin Martin, who had a horror show in his first game for two years, fluffed his lines 25 minutes in, beating the ball off what appeared to be the striker’s back before referee Stuart Templeman gave a free out for handball, with the striker side-footing into the net just as the whistle was blown.

The home team continued to push on and Shane Duggan missed an absolute sitter after a great run into the box, while Cummins was offside when he netted on 35 minutes. They soon doubled the lead however, thanks to a beautiful through ball from Duggan two minutes later.

He split the defence and O’Neill waltzed past a desperate challenge from the hapless Crehan to shoot straight at Martin, only for the Mervue stopper to fumble the ball into his own net. That really saw the away side’s heads drop and it was 3-0 just before the break.

Danny Murphy galloped down the left, Crehan was left for dead once more and Morrissey was unmarked outside the area to calmly tap home three minutes before interval, making it game set and the match in favour of the Leesiders.

While some might have expected an avalanche of goals in the second half, Mervue did their best to fashion some sort of second half comeback, with Noel Varley’s deflected effort shooting narrowly wide, but Dunne’s team remained comfortable. The second period was akin to a good old-fashioned game of backs-and-forwards, and the training session pace continued right up until the net.

If the score line was a bit closer, there would have been a legion of face-palms when Cummins managed to mishit from three yards after Morrissey squared to him, but it mattered for very little as Mervue rarely threatened.

Mountney blasted another free so far over it almost landed in Bandon with ten minutes to go, but there was still a chance for McNulty to pull off a decent double save from Mervue subs David O’Brien and Alex Lee.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Neal Horgan, Gavin Kavanagh, Kalen Spillane, Danny Murphy; Davin O’Neill, Greg O’Halloran, Shane Duggan (Stephen Mulcahy, 83mins), Gearóid Morrissey; Vinny Sullivan (Vincent Escudé-Candau, 60mins), Graham Cummins (Jamie Murphy, 80mins).
Subs not used: James McCarthy, Ian Turner, Derek O’Brien.
Booked: Sullivan.

Mervue United: Eoin Martin; Kevin Crehan, Martin Conneely, James Casserly, Dan Cunningham; Tom King, Noel Varley (Barry McEntee, 88mins), Marc Ludden (David O’Brien, 55mins), John Mountney; Rory Gaffney, Dave Goldbey (Alex Lee, 75mins).
Subs not used: TJ Forde, Mike Collins.
Booked: Crehan

Referee: Stuart Templeman (Clare).

Official Attendance: 1206.

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Gearóid Morrissey – once more he pulled the strings for the home team.