National League/Drogheda Utd - 0 Cork City - 1: A matter of weeks after extending his contract at Cork rather than accept the offer of a move to Drogheda, George O'Callaghan proved the difference between the two sides at United Park.
The 25-year-old's cool strike five minutes into the second half earned Damien Richardson's side the points from a fairly frantic encounter.
The visitors arrived having taken 26 from 30 points in the 10 games they have played since losing to Drogheda in their first meeting of the season at Turner's Cross; but after their travels in midweek this was always going to be as tough a test as they've had since taking over from Shelbourne as the league's front runners.
Sure enough, they had to hang on through spells of the closing stages after being reduced to 10 men by the sending off of Roy O'Donovan, and they were fortunate their hosts were denied the chance to grab an injury-time equaliser from the penalty spot after Damien Lynch was pushed inside the area by Danny Murphy.
"Roy paid for his exuberance and I have no complaint about that," observed Richardson afterwards in relation to the midfielder's rather pointless clash with Dan Connor, "although I'm not sure about the goalkeeper's role in it.
"I knew it was going to be very tough for us here and you could see in the second half the way the energy had drained out of the players - our wide men couldn't get into it at all. You need a lot of different attributes to win a title, though, and I thought our lads showed tremendous courage out there to hang on after taking the lead."
City certainly appeared at times a little sluggish both in defence, where the home side carved out enough scoring chances to perhaps feel that Harrington should at least have been required to make a decent save during the first half, and going forward, with O'Callaghan's characteristic invention on the ball creating several opportunities, all of which were wasted.
United's approach work and finishing were poor too, which was particularly disappointing for them given the presence of Harrington, back in the City team at 41 years of age owing to injuries to both regular goalkeepers.
The veteran never really looked convincing but never had to be as the closest he came to exerting himself was on the hour when Jermaine Sandvliet fired a low shot straight at him.
Richardson will continue talks with possible replacements in the next day or two and has been told he will be allowed to register one for next week's European game in view of the injury situation. Former youth internationals Colin Doyle, Saul Deeney and Wayne Henderson are all possible recruits.
Elsewhere, though, City continue to look strong, with Dan Murray again performing well when the going got tough here and O'Callaghan proving once more what a handful he can be.
His goal came after Connor had come to block with his feet as O'Donovan moved toward goal but the Corkman reacted quickest to the loose ball, calmly stepping inside before pushing the ball low through four defenders and into the net.
"We haven't been defending well lately and the goal was disappointing," sighed Paul Doolin. "We're the third-highest scorers in the league but we're well up there in terms of goals conceded too.
"The difference is," he concluded, "the bulk of that Cork team has been together for five years whereas most of ours has been together for five months. They're a good team but we'll keep plugging away."
DROGHEDA UNITED: Connor; P Sullivan, Stuart, Gartland, Webb; Whelan, Lynch, Bradley, Sandvliet; Ristila, Leech. Subs: O'Brien for Leech (51 mins), Reilly for Sullivan (56 mins), Rooney for Ristila (74 mins).
CORK CITY: Harrington; Horgan, Bennett, D Murray, Murphy; O'Donovan, O'Brien, O'Halloran, Kearney; O'Callaghan; O'Flynn. Subs: Behan for O'Flynn (91 mins), Fenn for Kearney (95 mins).
Referee: J Feighery (Dublin).
