Sligo Rovers 1-1 Cork City

Two goals in the last five minutes saw Sligo Rovers and Cork City share the spoils in their opening Premier Division game at The Showgrounds.

Cork thought they had won it when Billy Dennehy fired home the opener on 86 minutes, after Pat Sullivan capitalised on some sloppy Rovers defence.

But new signing Stephen Parkhouse earned a deserved point for the home side, when he controlled Romuald Boco’s cross in the box and fired to the net on 89 minutes.

Cork boss Paul Doolin had the luxury of a full squad for his first game in charge, and gave debuts to keeper Dan Connor, former Sligo striker Fahrudin Kuduzovic, Billy Dennehy and Latvian centre-back Roberts Mezeckis.

Rovers were without injured defenders Mauro Almeida and Chris Butler, but handed first starts to Shaun Holmes, Alan Keane and Owen Morrison.

Cork looked lively in the opening stages, with Sullivan finding space on the right, and Danny Murphy pressing forward on the left.

Murphy saw a decent shot skid across the face of goal, before Sullivan’s superb ball over the top set Denis Behan loose on 11 minutes, but his tame shot was saved by Richard Brush.

Rovers settled into the game after this, and were the better team for the next 10 minutes. They had a strong penalty shout on 23 minutes, when Sean Doherty’s cross appeared to be handled in the area by Neal Horgan.

Referee Richie Winter waved play on, however, though Morrison nearly capitalised with a curling right-foot shot that just missed the far post.

Rovers left-back Holmes also began to get to grips with Sullivan, and nearly scored himself with a brilliant 30-yard effort that flashed the wrong side of the post.

They did put the ball into the net on 38 minutes, when Boco’s cross from the right was met by a powerful Conor O’Grady shot that Connor did brilliant to stop, but couldn’t hold.

Raffaele Cretaro pounced on the rebound, but an offside flag spoiled his celebrations.

The visitors again were the brighter team for the opening of the second half, with Sullivan’s cross causing problems for Brush, and Gavin Peers having to clear Dan Murray’s snapshot off the line.

But Rovers had an equally good chance at the other end a minute later, when a right-foot cross from Holmes found Cretaro unmarked at the backpost, but the striker’s first-time volley flew wide.

Chances were at a premium after this, as Murphy of Cork and Cretaro of Rovers were booked within a minute of each other for rash tackles.

Strikers Parkhouse of Sligo and Guntars Silagailis of Cork both came on for the last 10 minutes, but it was Dennehy that finally found the breakthrough, curling a low shot into the corner.

But just as Rovers contemplated defeat, Parkhouse scored his first goal for the club with a composed finish to force a draw.

Sligo Rovers: R Brush, A Keane (S Feeney 89), G Peers, D Ventre, S Holmes, O Morrison (S Parkhouse 75), C O’Grady (captain), R Ryan, S Doherty (B Cash 64), R Boco, R Cretaro.
Subs not used: C Kelly, J Noctor.

Cork City: D Connor, N Horgan, R Mezeckis, D Murray (captain), D Murphy, P Sullivan, C Healy, J Gamble, B Dennehy, F Kuduzovic (S O’Donnell 66 (O’Halloran 87)), Behan (G Silagailis 78).
Subs not used: M McNulty, D O’Neill.

Referee: R Winter.