Darragh Crowley rescues a point as wasteful Cork City strike late against Treaty United

Treaty United 2 

Cork City 2 

Barry Robson reckoned Cork City should have been five or six up; instead they were twice behind, and it took Darragh Crowley's late strike at the Markets Field to rescue a point in their League of Ireland First Division clash on Friday night.

Treaty United had put in an excellent shift and retaken the lead after 85 minutes when subs Colm Whelan and Dare Kareem combined for the latter’s finish. He used his pace to break through the City defence, and though his initial effort was stopped by the closing Conor Brann, he got back to his feet and finished to the net.

It took City only three minutes to respond, a corner delivery bouncing around and falling for Darragh Crowley, who blasted home. Ruairí Keating would have found the winner for City in the 91st minute were it not for a stellar save from Jack Brady.

“We should never have been in that situation,” said City manager Barry Robson. “I think anybody who watched the game would have seen that. I just feel like I’m repeating myself all the time.

“Being brutally honest, I think we all agree we should have been maybe five or six up. Their goalkeeper had a terrific night.

“We’ve got to be better at taking our chances, and that’s where the game lies. We ended up having to go with a front six to try and win the game, and we shouldn’t even be in that situation, because we were in so much control. They were just getting the odd breakaway against us.

“Even in the first two minutes we had two unbelievable chances to put the game to bed,” he added. “When you don’t put your chances away, you end up giving them opportunities to hit us on the counter-attack, which they did.” 

Josh Fitzpatrick had an effort cleared off the line inside four minutes, but bar that City struggled to really test Brady in the opening period.

And so it was the hosts who opened the scoring after 16 minutes, when Robbie Lynch combined with Ben Feeney, who lobbed one in from the wing across the box, where Jason Oyenuga emerged unmarked to volley it off the ground and into the net beyond Brann.

Despite not causing too much of a fuss in the opening spell, the visitors found their leveller in the second half when Hans Mpongo played a one-two with Cillian Murphy, before setting up substitute Seani Maguire for a tap-in after 55 minutes, with the striker’s minutes still being carefully managed on his way back from injury.

“I just don’t want to take any risks with Seani,” said Robson. “We’ve got him on a gym programme, we’re getting him strong.

“There’s a lot of important games coming here, and we’ve also got next season as well. I want him to be right, so that’s why we’re spelling his minutes at the moment. Charlie Lyons has been struggling a bit too.” 

Treaty may even feel they could have had all three points – Brian Cunningham passed up two decent chances before Kareem struck – but the First Division leaders would have the final say through Crowley.

“I thought we played some of our best stuff there tonight,” insisted Robson. “I thought we were absolutely so good at times, the way we opened teams up. We were just a bit naïve as a team, that’s what it was. Every time we missed a chance, we’d give them a lift. Anybody watching that game knows that it should have been a comfortable one.

“We want to keep putting pressure on and we want to keep racking up the points.” 

TREATY UNITED (4-2-3-1): Brady; R Lynch, Cantwell, Nwankwo, B Lynch; Healy, Conroy (Kareem 75); Cunningham, Manning (Whelan 64), Oyenuga (Murphy 64); Feeney (Yoro 83).

CORK CITY (3-4-1-2): Brann; Nevin (Lyons HT), Kelleher, Feely; Fitzpatrick (Murray 83), O’Keeffe, Crowley, Drinan (Maguire HT); Murphy; Keating, Mpongo.

Referee: M Patchell