Cork City in serious danger of relegation after heavy loss away to St Pat's

St Patrick’s Athletic 4 

Cork City 0 

The light at the end of the tunnel is fading for Cork City following their 4-0 defeat to St Patrick’s Athletic on Monday evening at Richmond Park.

It could have been a transformative night in the club’s late push to stay up as relegation rivals Galway United and Sligo Rovers faced one another at Eamonn Deacy Park with Sligo winning one nil, and it ended with a cold realisation of what feels like the inevitable.

City now have no choice but to beat Galway away on Friday night as anything other than a win will see City all but relegated with four games to play.

City and St Pat's will meet again this season, this time in the FAI Cup semi-finals at Turner’s Cross.

That felt secondary in Dublin given the state of play at the bottom of the table, and any great hope of a first away win ended with Joe Redmond and Mason Melia giving the home side a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes.

Stephen Kenny’s side polished the win in the second half, a period that saw Conor Brann made a string of excellent saves for City.

The Rebel Army did have spells, with a slightly rejigged team from Friday’s draw with Shamrock Rovers that had Sean Murray in midfield instead of Greg Bolger and Benny Couto operating out wide in place of Matthew Kiernan.

This group were settling in when Redmond turned in a Simon Power corner to make it 1-0 in the 6th minute.

Tom Grivosti got into a similar position during their next advance and his header was stopped by Conor Brann, with the home side protesting that the ball was over the goal-line.

The Saints did not have to wait too long for their second as Melia was able to guide in a Power cross at the far post in the 18th minute.

Kenny’s side closed out the half with attempts for Barry Baggley and Redmond, and neither was able to find a way passed Brann.

Nash reacted to the flow of traffic by making three changes at the break with Josh Fitzpatrick, Charlie Lyons, and Bolger replacing Alex Nolan, Kaedyn Kamara, and Sean Murray.

The fresh legs injected a little bit of life into the game, and this faded once Melia slotted in with his right boot in the 58th minute.

The Saints finished their night with a frantic scramble inside the box and Kian Leavy firing in after collecting a Grivosti pass.

That was in the 63rd minute and the time left on the clock felt irrelevant, the game was long over at that point.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Joseph Anang; Jordan Garrick, Tom Grivosti, Joe Redmond, Axel Sjoberg, Jason McClelland, Kian Leavy, Jamie Lennon, Barry Baggley, Simon Power, Mason Melia.

Subs: Conor Carty for Melia (64); Al-Amin Kazeem for McClelland (67), Jake Mulraney for Power (67), Darren Robinson for Lennon (76), Brandon Kavanagh for Garrick (76).

Cork City: Conor Brann; Darragh Crowley, Freddie Anderson, Rory Feely, Benny Couto, Sean Murray, Kaedyn Kamara, Kitt Nelson, Evan McLaughlin, Alex Nolan, Sean Maguire.

Subs: Josh Fitzpatrick for Nolan (HT); Charlie Lyons for Kamara (HT), Greg Bolger for Murray (HT), Matthew Murray for Nelson (63), Charlie Lutz for Maguire (66).

Referee: Neill Doyle