Tough start for Danny Murphy as Peamount hit Cork City for seven goals
Cork City manager Danny Murphy in charge of his first game against Peamount United at Turner's Cross. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Cork City 0 Peamount United 7
DANNY Murphy endured a difficult start to his reign in charge of the Cork City women as they fell to a disappointing 7-0 defeat to Peamount United at Turner’s Cross on Saturday evening.
Aine O’Gorman was the star of the show as her hat-trick inspired Peamount to their first win in five matches while inflicting a sixth loss in succession on City.
Murphy made four changes from the side that former interim manager Jess Lawton selected to start their 4-0 defeat to Shelbourne last time out.
Goalkeeper Maria O’Sullivan dropped out of the squad completely and was replaced between the sticks by Abby McCarthy while Nadine Seward, Riona Crowley, and Lauren Singleton also came in for Christina Dring, Shaunagh McCarthy, and Nathalie O’Brien.
The Cockney Rebel’s first training session in charge only came the day before so it is going to take more time for him to implement his changes on the squad and eradicate the issues that have so far plagued their season.
On such issue is conceding goals in the opening exchanges and they ought to have fallen behind here in the second minute but they were fortunate to see Republic of Ireland international Aine O’Gorman blast over the crossbar from a few yards out.
O’Gorman then lofted a lob wide of the near post when she only had the keeper to beat before Stephanie Roche turned just inside the box and flashed a shot across the face of goal and just wide of the far post.
O’Gorman then sliced another effort off target and Peamount were desperately unlucky not to finally take the lead moments later as Erin McLoughlin’s thunderous hit from the edge of the penalty area crashed against the left upright.
City’s spirit and work rate could not be called into question but their opponents finally made their superior quality count on the scoreboard just shy of the quarter of an hour mark when Roche expertly controlled an inswinging corner before blasting the ball into the roof of the net.
Murphy may be wondering how she had so much time to do just that when the analysis begins in the coming days.
O’Gorman squandered another couple of glorious openings midway through the half and the Rebel Army almost punished her with half an hour on the clock as they went close to snatching an equaliser.
In truth, they should have snatched an equaliser but striker Nadine Seward couldn’t slot the ball past the advancing Niamh Reid Burke when through one on one with the shot-stopper.
The Peas reacted perfectly to that let-off as they doubled their advantage just two minutes later when O’Gorman finally rolled the ball past McCarthy and into the net, much to her relief.
They refused to rest on their laurels and they quickly made it 3-0 when O’Gorman decided to turn provider when bearing down on goal as she squared the ball to Sadhbh Doyle, who couldn’t miss from a few yards.
And Doyle would then make it four just before the half time break when she clipped a sensational strike over the onrushing McCarthy and into the back of the Shed End net.
The second period started with a much slower tempo than the first but shortly after Lauren Singleton just failed to connect with a corner from a good position, O’Gorman made it 5-0 when she coolly curled the ball into the top right corner when through one on one with McCarthy.
The talented number 11 completed her hat-trick with 22 minutes remaining as he easily rolled the ball across the line after McCarthy had stopped her initial attempt.
City battled until the bitter end and they were inches away from scoring a consolation but substitute Lauren Egbuloniu - on her first appearance since returning from college in America for the summer - was unfortunate to see her clever lob clip the top of the bar before Doonan’s header made it seven late on.
