Sligo Rovers 0-3 Cork City

Cork City got their title chase back on track with an impressive 3-0 defeat of Sligo Rovers at The Showgrounds.

Danny Murphy opened the scoring with a deflected free-kick midway through the first half, before former Rovers player Fahrudin Kuduzovic claimed a well-worked second on 67 minutes.

Pat Sullivan claimed a late third as Rovers, who handed a debut to new striker Matthew Blinkhorn as a second-half substitute, suffered a hangover from their exhausting European trip.

To add to Rovers' woes, Danny Ventre saw red for a second bookable offence late on.

Sligo Rovers made two changes to the team beaten in Albania on Thursday, with new signing Rob Turner making his second start up front in place of the rested Raffaele Cretaro, and Danny Keohane coming in for the departed Sean Doherty.

Cork City were without Billy Dennehy, Joe Gamble and Roberts Mezeckis, while Guntars Silagailis started on the bench.

Cork went out looking to capitalise on any sluggishness in the Rovers' side, and they created their first chance in under a minute.

Kuduzovic met a corner from the left with a flicked header, but Keohane was well-positioned to clear off the line.

Keohane was also involved with Rovers' first chance on nine minutes, when his cross picked out Turner, who could only head wide.

And Rovers were forced into an early change when centre-back Steve Feeney picked up a strain and was replaced by Owen Morrison.

Rovers were forced to reshuffle and Cork took advantage almost immediately, with Murphy's free-kick taking a deflection off Danny Ventre and spinning past Richard Brush.

Rovers responded well, with the lively Keohane testing Dan Connor with a shot from outside the area just before the half-hour.

Denis Behan almost punished some hesitancy in the Rovers defence soon after.

Rovers had a decent chance to test Connor again when Brian Cash was hauled down at the edge of the area. Richie Ryan’s free was narrowly off-target, however.

Cork started brightly in the second half and Colin Healy forced a save off Brush with a shot after running onto Behan's flick.

Rovers' first chance off the half came on a breakaway, as Brian Cash stole possession and fed Keohane via Ryan. The youngster's cross was too close to Connor though.

It proved to be Cash's last involvement, as boss Paul Cook made a double switch just before the break, bringing on top-scorer Cretaro and handing new striker Matthew Blinkhorn his debut.

But Cork could have been two up soon after, as Kuduzovic exchanged a one-two with Behan just outside the box, but his shot was covered by Brush.

Cretaro went close when he flicked Conor O'Grady's header from a corner goalwards, but the Cork keeper made the save.

And the Behan-Kuduzovic partnership eventually delivered on 67 minutes, when the former Rovers man took a pass from Healy and got a return from Behan before toe-poking home from five yards.

Ventre forced a full-length save off Connor with a brilliant free-kick, but Sullivan put a gloss on the scoreboard by firing home the third from the right-hand side of the area with ten minutes left.

And Rovers' misery was compounded when Ventre was sent-off for a second bookable offence in injury-time.

Sligo Rovers: Brush, Keane, Ventre, Feeney (Morrison 22), Keohane, Cash (Blinkhorn 57), O’Grady (captain), Ryan, Holmes, Turner (Cretaro 57), Boco.
Subs not used: Kelly, Torpey.

Cork City: Connor, Murphy, Sullivan, Murray, Horgan, Kiely (O’Neill 82), O’Halloran, Healy, O’Donnell, Kuduzovic, Behan.
Subs not used: McNulty, Loran, Silagailis, Duggan.

Ref: D Tomney.