Cork City fall to Shamrock Rovers in FAI Cup final

Shamrock Rovers 2 Cork City 0 

Cork City gave it their all but it wasn’t enough at the final hurdle as Shamrock Rovers took home the FAI Cup at the Aviva Stadium.

A second-half Rory Gaffney brace was the Rebel Army’s undoing, after going into the break reeling from the loss of Harry Nevin following the defender's red card in the 43rd minute.

The Rebel Army faithful witnessed a tooth-and-nail defensive performance that was occasionally broken early on by attempts from Darragh Crowley and Seani Maguire. They asked questions of the favourites, and raised the possibility of a first major cup upset since a relegated Dundalk outfit pipped Bohemians in the decider at Tolka Park in 2002.

City were holding their own, with Conor Brann leading the charge by making a number of early saves to deny Graham Burke and Healy.

Roberto Lopes actually went the closest out of everyone to getting the opening goal and the Cape Verde international headed wide from a short corner.

Then came a lunging challenge by Nevin on Honohan and the red card reduced the Rebel Army to 10 players. Rovers built on this by winning a free-kick and Burke’s effort from a dead ball stung the palms of Conor Brann before the break.

City regrouped at half-time by replacing Alex Nolan with Conor Drinan while Josh Fitzpatrick moved to right wing back. A re-energised City even managed to create a chance against the run of play, through a Freddie Anderson header, and this was pushed away by Ed McGinty.

The Hoops went up a gear once they got the ball back, which forced City to take another step back to the point where there were often seven players inside the box trying to break up traffic.

Anderson and Fiacre Kelleher stood firm during this period, as players like Danny Grant and Hohohan started crossing into the box.

Something was coming, and it arrived after a mistake by Anderson inside the area. That allowed Dylan Watts in and set up Grant for a pass to Gaffney, who easily tapped in from right in front of the posts.

Ger Nash and his coaching staff immediately went to the bench in a bid to inject fresh legs back into his side, and this led to a double substitution involving Kaedyn Kamara and Matthew Murray taking the places of Kelleher and Bolger.

Rovers remained in control, and with that came the second goal in the 72nd minute in front of their fans. Gaffney got that by stabbing the ball in, and with that the dream of a great upset died.

There’s a small bit of consolidation for Cork clubs Carrigaline United and College Corinthians as former players Josh Honohan and Matt Healy were on the winning Rovers side.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Ed McGinty; Daniel Grant, Daniel Cleary, Roberto Lopes, Cory O’Sullivan, Josh Honohan, Dylan Watts, Matt Healy, Aaron McEneff, Rory Gaffney, Graham Burke.

Subs: Danny Mandroiu for Watts (78); John McGovern for Gaffney (78), Connor Malley for Mandroiu (84), Lee Grace for Honohan (88), Sean Kavanagh for Burke (88).

CORK CITY: Conor Brann; Harry Nevin, Freddie Anderson, Fiacre Kelleher, Rory Feely, Josh Fitzpatrick; Greg Bolger, Darragh Crowley, Alex Nolan, Evan McLaughlin, Sean Maguire.

Subs: Conor Drinan for Nolan (HT); Kaedyn Kamara for Kelleher (70); Matthew Murray for Greg Bolger (71), Ruairi Keating for McLaughlin (75).

Referee: Paul Norton