Cork City U20s set up Cobh Ramblers clash with victory over Carrigaline United
Cork City's Matthew Murray celebrates his opening penalty with Rhys Kelly-Noonan and Harry Skieters against Carrigaline United during the Munster Senior Cup at Ballea Park. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
Cork City will face Cobh Ramblers at St Colman’s Park in the Munster Senior Cup quarter-final following this victory at Ballea Park.
The Rebel Army fielded their U20s on Friday night, with Darren Murphy taking charge, and goals from Matthew Murray and Luke Downey got the win. They played a side in the middle of their season, used to the physical battle of the Munster Senior League First Division.
Carrigaline are fighting for promotion locally and they got this far in the competition by defeating St Mary’s at Kilcully. City faced similar opposition last year, and they were downed by Wilton United in Mayfield.
There was no repeat. Instead, it was a comfortable win for a side that started with a weaving run by Murray into the box inside the first minute.
The midfielder went for goal and his close-range attempt was pushed out for a corner that came to nothing by Ryan Delaney, who played for Cobh Ramblers last year. The would-be scorer won his side a penalty in the 9th minute and cooly converted to make it 1-0 to City.
Carrigaline immediately pushed up and a burst of activity inside the area led to the referee pointing the spot, 90 seconds after the first goal.
Richard Duggan stepped up and his penalty went well wide, but that did not deter the home side. They poured forward and a flurry of shots on the edge of the area were blocked down by the City defence.
The Rebel Army responded by trying to kill the game by getting a quick second goal. Cian Kingston stood firm during this spell for Carrigaline, and he cleared their lines as Moore and Rhys Kelly-Noonan roamed around looking for space.
Harvey Skieters was then brought down and the resulting free-kick was hit narrowly wide by Arran Healy.
Carrigaline managed to break once they got the ball back and Andrew Cronin’s effort was caught by Rory Moloney.
City got their second at the 34th minute with a well worked corner routine that started with a short pass from Healy. Their quick movement freed up space for Downey to finish this move, and the midfielder hit the back of the net from right in front of the posts.
The Rebel Army took this lead into the break and Murphy freshened things up after the restart by replacing Healy and Skieters with Jamie Kelly and Sean Richmond.
City killed the game off by passing the ball around, with the second half all-but a formality.
Ryan Delaney; Darragh Buckley, Darragh Corcoran, Cian Kingston, Kalen Spillane, Richard Duggan, Ronan Connolly, Adam Costello, Cian O’Flaherty, Andrew Cronin, Nathan Browne Manson.
Jamie Moore O’Flaherty (19); Louka Mohan for Connolly (80), Ciaran Crotty for Buckley (83), Sean Byrne for Costello (90), Rob Walker for Cronin (90).
Rory Moloney; Finn Dalton, Patryk Swiecczka Andrzejczak, Callum Honohan, Luke Downey, Ronan O’Shea, Jayden O’Donovan, Arran Healy, Rhys Kelly-Noonan, Harvey Skieters, Matthew Murray.
Jamie Kelly for Healy (60); Sean Richmond for Skieters (60), Denzell Obenge for Murray (72), Noah Sowinski for Dalton (72), Sam Bailey for O’Shea (84).
Jason Mannix
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