St Patrick’s Athletic 0 Cork City 3
The locals will look at this scoreline and wonder just how it ended up being quite so damning but, by the end, Cork City were well worth a win that extends their early season winning streak into double digits.
Their third, from Garry Buckley in the fourth minute of added time, was the pick of the bunch, with Shane Griffin selflessly setting his teammate up for a very cool finish.
But John Caulfield will have been pleased too to see Karl Sheppard’s revival continue with his powerfully struck effort coming after sheer willpower, it seemed, had forced the defensive error that gifted the visitors their breakthrough just over an hour in.
Beforehand, the two teams’ respective form had certainly suggested this might be another good night for Cork with Sean Maguire perhaps expected to play a bigger role.
With Preston’s Simon Grayson and Peter Ridsdale in the stand a memorable game for the striker might have been career enhancing but the 22-year-old had a relatively quiet one by his standards with Gavin Peers and co doing well to keep him under control, at least until late on when they seemed to tire and he began to have more of an impact.
He set up the second for Sheppard and won a steady stream of free kicks around the area over the course of the second half but rarely looked like actually adding to his eight league goals this season. Ultimately it didn’t really matter as City did more than enough to maintain their nine point lead over Dundalk at the top of the table.
The match, though, was much more even than might have been expected up until those closing stages with the home side looking livelier than might have been expected of a side trying hard to haul itself out of the bottom three.
There was certainly bundles of energy and commitment from Liam Buckley’s young side who looked determined to take the game to the league leaders in every area of the pitch.
Through the centre of midfield they even the better of it for stretches although beyond that they tended to draw a blank with Mark McNulty not required to make an actual save until late on when substitute Billy Dennehy came close finding the top left corner with a curling free from 25 yards.
Before that Kurtis Byrne had gone close with a couple of set pieces and Conan Byrne had a decent effort blocked down but City never really looked under any great threat despite never having it easy and their own chances were rather more clearcut with Sheppard, Ryan Delaney and Kevin O’Connor all going very close to adding further goals.
It was an O’Connor free that led to the first with John Dunleavy’s header eventually, it seemed, turned home by the heel of a defender and though they had battled bravely up until that point and briefly threatened to bounce back, Caulfield’s had what it took to press home their advantage from there.
It is too early yet to say whether they can do the same in the title race.
ST PATRICK'S ATHLETIC: O'Malley; Barker, Peers, Feely, Bermingham; Verdon, Desmond; Byrne, Markey (Lunney, 83 mins), Byrne (B Dennehy, 79 mins); O'Hanlon.
CORK CITY: McNulty; Beattie, Bennett (Dunleavy, 52 mins), Delaney, O'Connor; McCormack (Bolger, 66 mins), Morrissey; Sheppard, Buckley, Dooley (Griffin, 83 mins); Maguire.
Referee: Robert Hennessy (Limerick).
