Cork City ease past Wexford but title party put on hold
Cork City's Cillian Murphy celebrates his assist for Seani Maguire to score their second goal. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom O'Hanlon
No silverware celebrations. Not yet anyway; that moment will have to wait at least another week for Cork City.
Nonetheless, a strong second half at Turner's Cross was enough to carry Barry Robson’s charges past Wexford on Friday evening in the First Division. They began the second half with a bang, Seani Maguire breaking through down the flank before squaring to Cillian Murphy, who poked home in the 48th minute.
From there it was up to Wexford to find an answer, but they struggled to really test City. Joe Aidoo was subbed on for his debut and the Leesiders continued to control the game, though a flashpoint arrived in the 66th minute when a reckless challenge from Ryan Ritchie on Maguire sparked a brief scuffle between the teams.
And, in the 75th minute, City doubled their advantage when Murphy swung in a cross that Maguire headed home from close range to put the game to bed.
With the game all but won, City fans were all set for the grand conclusion as UCD were level with Finn Harps at 4-4, but Hugh Smith’s late winner for the Students ensured the party would be postponed, for now.
City now only need two points from their remaining seven games to clinch the title.
“I think the first 15 minutes we didn't play our best. So we changed it. I think we were expecting them to come in at 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and they actually came in with a 5-4-1,” said Robson after the win. “So I thought after the first 10-15 minutes it was teams just going against each other and we wanted to try and play between them in the spaces.
“So we went quite bravely. We went at 4-2-4 and we actually put Fitzy in right back as a winger. And we put Cillian, who we didn't think was getting to influence the game in the middle of the pitch, so we put him out wide to try and cause them problems.
“And I thought after we made that change we started to really come into the game and started to control it a lot more. And then we come into the second half and I thought we were really professional in the second half.
“I thought we totally controlled the game. Cillian started getting in the spaces we wanted him to play in,” he added. “Seani was dropping into a lot of places where we wanted to play.
“Hans started to get a grip on the game as well and I thought we were really comfortable in the end.” City were forced to play without Greg Bolger and the injured Conor Drinan, while a minute’s silence was observed for Bolger’s father, Thomas, who passed away earlier in the week.
Conor Brann was forced to make a couple of good saves – one in each half – but other than that, Wexford carved out few openings. At the other end, Keating had a good attempt stopped in the 19th minute by Paul Martin, while Aidoo almost netted on debut near the conclusion when he was set up after a superb piece of play from Mpongo, but his rocketed effort strayed wide.
Brann; Lyons, Kelleher, Feely; Fitzpatrick (Nevin 53), Crowley, Murphy, O’Keeffe (Aidoo 58), Mpongo; Maguire, Keating.
Martin; Shanturo Doyle (O’Sullivan 78), Butler, Bartley, Dignam, Wynne; Hodgins (Abada 72), Harnett, Ritchie (Norval 89), Rowe; Doyle.
D Carolan (Louth)
App?
