Cobh Ramblers' Antonio Izzi scored four times as Cobh Ramblers embarrassed Waterford United, who had two players sent off, in their opening League Cup Group A match at the Regional Sports Centre last night.
Izzi wasted little time in opening his account with the first goal after just 37 seconds when he punished a poor back pass by Waterford player/manager, Tommy Lynch, to run through and score.
Waterford seemed to cave in when they lost Sean Riordan two minutes into the second-half, when he was sent-off for a second bookable offence, to be followed in the 61st minute by Alan Reynolds who was dismissed for a foul on Paul Coughlin.
Izzi added his second on 66 minutes when outpacing the Waterford defence to shoot past Niall Hobbert. He completed his hat-trick seven minutes later with a deflected shot.
Rory O'Connor piled on the misery for Waterford with a fourth goal three minutes later, shooting home Tommy Butler's cross.
Izzi then had the last say when he got his fourth five minutes from time with a shot from 20 yards.
Bray Wanderers clinically punished dreadful defending to end a nine-year wait for a win over St Patrick's Athletic at Richmond Park and get their group F challenge off to a winning start.
Bray keeper John Walsh made a stunning one-handed save to deprive St Patrick's Tommy Gaynor in the second minute before Bray broke away to take the lead a minute later.
St Patrick's failed to clear the ball on several occasions as both Richie Parsons and Kieran O'Brien had shots blocked. But Parsons retrieved the ball again and, in attempting to shoot to the far corner, his effort was turned into the net by St Patrick's fullback Willie Burke.
A well worked goal had St Patrick's level eight minutes later. Paul Campbell, leading the side for the night in the absence of Eddie Gormely through suspension, floated a free-kick into the Bray box. Colin Hawkins headed it back across goal for Paul Osam to blast into the roof of the net from eight yards out.
But further bad defending cost St Patrick's another goal on 31 minutes. Paddy Geraghty played Alan Dodd in down the right to cross. Parsons' initial shot was bravely blocked by Osam, but the ball ran kindly for Kieran O'Brien who capped his 100th appearance for Bray with an easy goal.
Bray held on for their win despite having the play out the final 12 minutes without Pat O'Brien who was sent-off for a second bookable offence, both times for fouls on St Patrick's Trevor Molloy.
A goal from Karl Gannon was enough to give Home Farm/Everton a surprise win over Gannon's former club Shamrock Rovers in their Group E match at Tolka Park.
