Leaders St Patrick's Athletic have lost their unbeaten league record as they were defeated 1-0 by Cork City at Turner's Cross tonight.
The turning point came midway through the second half when Cork's top scorer Roy O'Donovan was brought down in the penalty area by visiting defender Stephen Paisley.
Referee Dave McKeon awarded a spot-kick and sent Paisley off.
O'Donovan scored the winner from the spot, smashing the ball high into the roof of Barry Ryan's net.
John McDonnell's side were unbeaten in the league before kick off leading Drogheda United by two points and nine ahead of third-placed Cork.
Pat's had also beaten Damien Richardson's side twice in the Setanta Cup at Inchicore and Turner's Cross this season, while City had drawn their previous three league matches, before losing the Setanta Cup semi-final to Linfield at Windsor Park on Monday night.
There was an injury to Pat's influential midfielder Alan Kirby before kick off when he slipped in the warm-up, his place was taken by John Frost, with Mark Rooney coming in for a place on the bench.
Cork made one change from the side beaten in Belfast with Roy O'Donovan returning from suspension in place of John O'Flynn who was on the substitutes bench.
The nearest we came to a goal in a tight scoreless first half was an effort from St Patrick's influential midfielder Joseph Ndo, which rolled a foot wide of Michael Devine's goal.
The only goal after 68 minutes came as Cork started to come more into the match, it also shows how important Roy O'Donovan is to Damien Richardson's team.
His penalty kick was his seventh league goal of the season and his 12th in all competitions.
Pat's are still two points clear of Drogheda who now have a game in hand, while Cork have moved to within six points of the leaders.
Cork City: Devine; Horgan, Ryan, O'Callaghan, Murray; O'Brien, Softic, Gamble, Kearney; Behan, O'Donovan.
Subs: Woods for Kearney 60 mins, O'Flynn for Behan 87.
St Patrick's Athletic: Ryan; Brennan, Maguire, Paisley; Frost, Ndo, Mulcahy, Fahey, Murphy; M Quigley, O'Neill.
Subs: S Quigley for Mulcahy h/t, Foley for M Quigley 69, O'Connor for O'Neill 87.
Referee: Dave McKeon (Dublin).
