Ruairí Keating, Hans Mpongo and Seani Maguire occupy top three spots in First Division scoring charts
Cork City's Seani Maguire celebrates with Ruairi Keating after scoring against Bray, when they won the league. Picture: INPHO/Ben Brady
The second fixture in back-to-back home games beckons for Cork City, as they host UCD at Turner’s Cross this evening in the League of Ireland First Division at 7.45pm.
The newly-crowned champions come into this one off the back of last week’s defeat to Cork rivals Cobh Ramblers, 3-2 by the finish after the Rams’ second-half turnaround.
City’s cause wasn’t helped by the absence of defender Charlie Lyons, but made much worse when Fiacre Kelleher was shown a straight red card just before the interval. The Rams hit three goals in the second half to pull clear, while Seani Maguire grabbed a late consolation for the hosts.
For City manager Barry Robson, tonight’s task will be even more challenging with Kelleher ruled out with suspension and Lyons unlikely to return, given the injury issues he has been dealing with for the last number of weeks.
Lyons' absence last Friday meant that Chris N'Sa had the opportunity to make his first start since signing for the team, and despite being thrown in under difficult circumstances, Robson was pleased with the Canadian’s showing.
“Yeah, he looks a good player, and he's not played in three or four months,” Robson said after the Cobh defeat. “And then he's come on and we had him at right back, his natural position.
“And then, Charlie Lyons has been out with an injection, Fiacre’s sitting inside and then Chris has got to go and play as a centre-back. It was makeshift, we had to take Hans [Mpongo] off, we had to make a lot of changes. But he did quite well in the second half even though it wasn’t his natural position.”
It’s likely N’Sa will have to feature at centre-back once again, unless Robson wants to take a chance on promising young defender Luke Downey. Should Downey not feature, Robson will be forced to deploy four at the back with two centre-halves rather than the three he’s preferred for much of this campaign.
Harry Nevin has done well when called upon this year at right back while Conor Drinan has been rock solid all year on the left, but the unfamiliar pairing of N’Sa and Rory Feely will be something UCD may look to exploit.
UCD find themselves best of the rest in second with five games to go, but tonight’s match will be pivotal in preserving top seed, with Bray only two points behind in third, and Cobh Ramblers a further two back in fourth.
For City there’s nothing to play for but pride – which could do with a little restoration after last week – though the Leesiders’ leading attacking trio of Ruairí Keating, Hans Mpongo and Seani Maguire have the top-scoring honours to contest.
Keating currently sits top with 15 league goals to his name so far this season, while Maguire closed the gap with his brace last week, drawing level with Hans Mpongo on 14 goals to date. The nearest non-City challenger is Wexford’s Mikie Rowe, who has netted 11 times this campaign.
The assists chart is spearheaded by City entries too; Hans Mpongo is joint top with starlet Cillian Murphy, as both have 11 to date.
And while the battle for top scorer will continue to be contested over the remaining five games that bear no significance for City’s league position, it will still be important to Robson and his side that they finish the campaign well.
In that 2024 campaign they ended the season with 78 points, 10 more than they currently have, with 12 draws over the course of the 36-game season keeping the final tally somewhat restrained despite so few defeats.
They can still surpass that 78-point figure though, but it would require three wins and two draws from the final five, which form this season suggests is possible.
However, concern over the centre-back department and no reason to stretch themselves at this stage in the campaign does leave it likely they’ll fall just short of the 2024 points total.
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