Waterford United  0 Cork City  3:Cork City took the spoils in this Munster derby at the RSC last night. The first moment of quality in a match devoid of incident to that point arrived in the 40th minute, and it gave Damien Richardson's Cork side the lead.

Cutting inside Robbie Hedderman from the right edge of the penalty area, Gareth Farrelly steered a left-footed shot beyond the diving Dean Delaney.

Some Waterford fans weren't even back in their seats by the time Cork had doubled their lead less than a minute into the second half. Colin Healy's free-kick looked harmless but it found Dan Murray who swept the ball home from six yards.

Waterford ought to have scored on 63 minutes after Alan Kearney's deflected pass left fellow substitute Willie John Kiely with a goal at his mercy but he pulled his shot wide.

Four minutes from time, Cork wrapped up the points to stay in contention for a European berth. Leon McSweeney steered the ball across the six-yard box to Joe Gamble who nodded in from point-blank range.

The first time either side came close to making a breakthrough arrived after 18 minutes when Liam Kearney struck a dangerous ball across the Waterford six-yard box but there was no Cork player to finish. Waterford's first attack of note took 28 minutes to arrive, Karl Bermingham turning inside Neal Horgan and into the penalty area. But his final ball was blocked and cleared to safety.

WATERFORD UNITED: D Delaney, P Flynn, R Hedderman, D Mulcahy, D Breen, R Scully, D Warren (A Mulcahy 72 mins), P McCarthy (A Kearney 59 mins), V Sullivan, D Kavanagh, K Bermingham (WJ Kiely 55 mins).

CORK CITY: M McNulty, N Horgan, B O'Callaghan, D Murray, D Ryan, G Farrelly, C Healy, J Gamble, L Kearney (B Woods 78 mins), J O'Flynn, L McSweeney.

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin)