Red card and late goal cost Cork City away to Sligo Rovers

Sligo Rovers 1 Cork City 1 

Cork City and Sligo Rovers could not be separated in a massive game at the bottom of the Premier Division table on Saturday evening at The Showgrounds.

The Rebel Army thought they did enough to get the three points after Kitt Nelson scored in the 77th minute, but Francley Lomboto was in the right place to get an injury-time equaliser for the home side.

Tim Clancy’s team had to dig in to make sure they got the point as Josh Fitzpatrick was shown a straight red card late on.

Sligo were out to get just their third win of the year and with that came a number of early chances, starting with a driven effort by Jad Hakiki that went wide.

The Bit O’Red’s next effort came from a free-kick won off a Sean Murray foul in the 5th minute and Gareth McElroy headed this wide.

The Rebel Army soaked up the pressure, and slowly established themselves in an attacking sense.

Milan Mbeng was the first player to try and create something and a deep cross by the defender was easily knocked away.

John Mahon then brought down Nelson and Evan McLaughlin kicked the resulting free-kick straight into the hands of Sam Sargeant.

Cathal O’Sullivan followed that by winning a corner in the 16th minute. Sligo broke out of that and Darragh Crowley got in the way of Will Fitzgerald which gave City time to retreat and cover ground.

This is how the game went, one team got the ball and went forward and the other did everything to stop them from scoring.

It was simple, but endemic of a night where everything counted given the state of the league table.

This brought pressure and City had a better time of dealing with that throughout the evening.

The Rebel Army were better at keeping the ball, their issue was creating a clear opening and testing Sargeant.

At the other end, Sligo had a corner punched away by Tien Troost and the loose ball was scrambled away by City.

It was 0-0 at the break and by the 53rd minute, Clancy decided to make a change with Fitzpatrick replacing Alex Nolan.

The first major opportunity of the second half came from a Charlie Reynolds through ball to Owen Elding, and Troost got in the way of this before the forward could take a meaningful touch in the box.

Sligo had the majority of possession after this, while City sat back and broke when space opened up.

On one occasion, Fitzpatrick put a low cross into the box and that narrowly missed Djenairo Daniels.

Cathal O’Sullivan also found himself with the ball looking at the posts and his shot went just over.

The Rebel Army were patient as these chances started coming their way, and this paid off when Nelson hit the back of the net in the 79th minute.

That followed a burst down the left wing that allowed Matthew Kiernan to run into the box and send the ball to Djenairo Daniels. The striker actually fumbled the ball back to an unmarked Nelson, and the Preston North End loanee made no mistake from close range.

Sligo immediately went up a gear in a bid to get an equaliser and Lomboto got that from a corner after the ball was knocked on in the box.

SLIGO: Sam Sargeant; Reece Hutchinson, William Fitzgerald, Jad Hakiki, Cian Kavanagh, Ronan Manning, John Mahon, Conor Reynolds, Owen Elding, Jake Doyle Hayes, Gareth McElroy.

Subs: Francely Lomboto for Kavanagh (62); Daire Patton for Reynolds (72), Stephen Mallon for Hakiki (72), Matthew Wolfe for Manning (90).

CITY: Tein Troost; Milan Mbeng, Darragh Crowley, Charlie Lyons, Bernardo Couto; Kitt Nelson, Evan Mclaughlin, Sean Murray, Cathal O’Sullivan, Alex Nolan, Djenairo Daniels.

Subs: Josh Fitzpatrick for Nolan (53); Matthew Kiernan for Couto (64), Rio Shipston for Nelson (82).

Referee: Robert Harvey