Derry City 1 Cork City 2
Cork City were forced to grind out a victory in what proved to be one of their toughest matches in the current campaign against Derry City in Buncrana last night.
The win was all the move impressive given that Cork had to see out the final 24 minutes with 10 men having lost the services of full-back, Jimmy Keohane due too two yellow cards.
First choice centre-backs, Alan Bennett and Johnny Dunleavy, were also absent for this tough fixture.
Derry made their intentions known from an early juncture when striker Ronan Curtis forced Mark McNulty, into an excellent save.
Cork threatened five minutes later when the the lively Sean Maguire found the unmarked Stephen Dooley at the back post but Ger Doherty did so well to make the save and then get down to smother the rebound at Dooley's feet. But Derry broke the deadlock in the 17th minute with a magnificent goal. A long ball from defence found Barry McNamee and as the skilful midfielder drove forward and the makeshift Cork defence backed off, the Donegal man fired a left-foot shot high into the net.
But a slack defensive pass resulted in Cork restoring equality on the half hour.
Attempting to play the ball out of defence, McNamee's pass was intercepted by Maguire whose incisive pass found Karl Sheppard free on the edge of the box and he gleefully slid the ball home.
Cork then silenced the attendance with a superb strike which came out of the blue in the 36th minute.
Dooley rolled the ball into the path of Gearóid Morrissey and the midfielder fired a strike to the net with the outside of his right foot from 35 yards.
Dooley then went close twice to extending Cork’s lead before the interval.
Cork suffered a body blow with the dismissal of Keohane in the 66th minute but their resolute defence was equal to whatever Derry could throw at them before the finish.
Derry City: Doherty; Monaghan (Schubert, 76), McDermott (Timlin, 86), Barry, Jarvis; Boyle, Low, McEneff, Curtis; McNamee; Patterson.
Cork City: McNulty; Keohane, McCormack, Delaney, O'Connor; Sheppard, Bolger (Griffin, 71), Morrissey, Dooley; Buckley; Maguire.
Referee: P McLaughlin (Donegal)
