Cork City fail to press home advantage but Cobh impress away to Shels

A mixed return to league action on Friday in the SSE Airtricity First Division, but unfortunately not to winning ways for Cork City and Cobh Ramblers.

It certainly was a happier outing for Darren Murphy’s Cobh Ramblers side as they snatched a magnificent 2-2 draw away to league leaders Shelbourne, but Colin Healy’s Cork City side were disappointed to pick up just a point at home to UCD.

They had been hoping to carry their winning form in the cup into the league and to be fair, both clubs give it their all.

Cork City just didn't do enough to defeat UCD, though it was a superb point on the road for Cobh. 

Having gone behind twice in the game recent signings Nathan and Danny O’Connell came to the rescue and for the second week in a row the duo produced superb strikes to earn their side a valuable point.

Confidence in the side is building and I expect them to carry this form into next week's game at home to Athlone.

For City, it was another frustrating night at the Cross. Although they took the lead through Cian Murphy early in the second half, a horrible deflection off Mark McNulty's back from a superb UCD free-kick levelled the game.

For the opening half-hour, City dominated possession.  They passed the ball well, their work-rate was great but yet again no major spark in the final third. 

That doesn’t take away from the attitude of Murphy and Beneoin O’Brien Whitmarsh going forward. They always looked a threat when on the ball. However, with very little support, very few chances were created. 

Both lads know when to hold the ball up and when to run at the defence. Cian Coleman put in a great shift in midfield and was a good link to the lads out wide and O'Brien Whitmarsh up top.

To be fair to UCD they played nice football, looked composed on the ball and I always feared when striker Colm Whelan was in possession. Thankfully for City, he overcarried at times which allowed City to defend and denied him of any real chance on goal and the sides went in level at 0-0 at the break.

A great start to the second half saw Murphy slot home the opener. However, less than a minute later UCD should have equalised but Mark McNulty pulled off a great save to deny Whelan. 

City began to play with more purpose and intent and went more direct rather than their usual left to right.

We got to enjoy some lovely passing in particular from new signing Aaron Bolger. 

I was impressed by him. I thought he looked very comfortable on the ball and was able to pick out a good pass every time. 

Alongside him was also new signing Barry Coffey. We saw glimpses of how good a player he is but I did expect him to be substituted though for maybe Jack Walsh, however that never happened.

Instead, the switch was George Heaven for Bolger. A rather strange substitution. Bringing on a centre-half for a midfielder who was doing well! 

However, Healy did push on Darragh Crowley who I thought up to this point was having a poor enough game. At full-back while he defended well I thought his distribution could have been better. 

So while I wasn’t too happy to see Bolger leave the pitch, to be fair to Crowley, he did better in the more attacking position. 

However, it still wasn’t enough for City to grab a winner. 

They continued to battle and Murphy and O’Brien Whitmarsh got into some great positions, but they failed to hit the back of the net. 

Dylan McGlade enjoyed a lot of possession also but I see why so many people get frustrated with the lively winger. 

He fails to release the ball often enough and although last Friday he showed great ability to get past defenders, it resulted in nothing because it’s as if his teammates can’t read his game. 

When he eventually decides to release the ball and delivers a teasing ball across the goal, there wasn’t a City player to get on the end of it. Frustrating to say the least, however next up is an away trip against John Caulfield's Galway, so let’s hope they can pick up their second away league win of the season.