Two red cards as Cobh Ramblers knocked out of FAI Cup by Colin Healy's Kerry
Harvey Cribb of Cobh Ramblers misses a goal chance during the Sports Direct Men’s FAI Cup third round match against Kerry FC. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Cobh Ramblers' FAI Cup campaign came to an end with a defeat to Kerry FC at Mounthawk Park.
It was a disastrous evening for Mick McDermott’s team as they finished the game with nine players after the dismissals of John O’Donovan and captain Shane Griffin.
Cian Brosnan and Joseph Adams got the goals to send Colin Healy’s side through to the quarter finals for the second successive season.
This was the fifth meeting of the year between the two teams and any sense of comfortable familiarity evaporated with O’Donovan seeing red for a foul on Brosnan inside 90 seconds.
After missing the resulting free, Kerry scored with their next attack with a left-footed Brosnan volley on the edge of the area in the 10th minute.
The Ramblers were having a nightmare, something that completely went against the traditional pattern of a Munster Derby that is usually coloured claret and blue.
Barry Coffey did offer some sort of a response, the midfielder even hit the back of the net, but he was flagged for offside.
Kerry went on to win a corner and Sean O’Connell’s set-piece was flicked wide by Chris McQueen in the 38th minute.
It took some time for Cobh to establish some sense of composure, with their best spell of the first half coming in the dying seconds.
The game restarted with Jonas Hakkinen going long and finding an unmarked Coffey, who set up Cian Murphy for a low shot that went just wide.
The striker followed that up in the 64th minute by getting under a Cian Bargary cross and having a close range header stopped at the near post by Matthew Connor.
The Ramblers kept going in a bid to keep momentum, and their next chance to equalise was flicked wide by Harvey Cribb off a free-kick.
Things were building nicely from a Cobh point of view, until the referee spotted a push in the back inside the box. Adams stepped up to take the penalty in the 64th minute and the substitute made no mistake when up against Timothy Martin.
McDermott went for it late on with nothing to lose by bringing on Dylan McGlade and Matthew Whelan as his team tried to pull a goal back.
Shane Griffin’s second yellow in injury time effectively ended the game, and extinguish any hope of a rescue mission in Tralee.
Matthew Connor; Sean O’Connell, Oran Crowe, Christopher McQueen, Carl Mujaguzi, Ronan Teehan, Robert Cleary, Kevin Williams, Cian Brosnan, Samuel Aladesanusi, Niall Brookwell.
Joseph Adams for Aladesanusi (53); Finn Barrett for Brosnan (65), Ryan Perez Barrett (87).
Timothy Martin; Jonas Hakkinen, Cian Coleman, John O’Donovan, Shane Griffin, Niall O’Keeffe, Harvey Cribb, Shane Griffin, Barry Coffey, Cian Bargary, Cian Murphy.
Iestyn Hughes for O’Keeffe (60), Dylan McGlade for Bargary (72), Matthew Whelan for Murphy (72), Samuel Bellis for Coffey (81), Rhys Gourdie for Griffin (81).
Aaron O’Dowd
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