By Niamh O'Mahony at Turner's Cross
Cork City 2-0 Galway United
Cork City picked up all three points on offer from their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division clash with Galway United at Turner’s Cross, beating the Tribesmen 2-0 with goals from Karl Sheppard and Alan Bennett.
Sheppard’s headed goal lit up a poor first half in Cork - the former Shamrock Rovers man finished from close range after Galway keeper Connor Gleeson failed to catch Billy Dennehy’s corner ball.
Last year’s surprise title challengers were the better of the two teams after the break, and it was Bennett - awarded Man of the Match on the night - that found the back of the net with a powerful header to secure victory.
John Caulfield made three changes, introducing John Kavanagh, Gavan Holohan and Mark O’Sullivan to his starting XI, while counterpart Tommy Dunne brought in two former City men in Andy O'Connell and David O’Leary, with new boy Kevin Garcia also getting the nod as part of United’s back four.
Ex-City boss Dunne was given a warm welcome by the crowd of 2,934 when he appeared on the sideline just before kick off, and the Dubliner would also have been the happier of the two managers initially.
United lined out with five across the middle and one up front in the form of Jake Keegan, and their hard-working approach restricted their opponents to a handful of opportunities from set pieces for the opening 30 minutes.
The switch that led to the breakthrough came just after the half-hour when Billy Dennehy and Holohan swapped wings, and the former Drogheda United man immediately raced clear to feed O’Sullivan with a lovely ball. The striker took one touch before firing on target, only for his effort to be well blocked by O’Connell.
The visitors cleared City’s first corner - from the boot of Kavanagh - but conceded a second, and when Gleeson failed to collect Dennehy’s follow-up set piece, Sheppard headed home from just yards out.
City continued to look edgy at times though, and substitute Padraic Cunningham - on for the injured Ryan Connolly - almost made an instant impact three minutes before the interval when he latched on to a long through ball - only for Bennett to nick the ball away from danger at the vital moment.
The home side had the chance to double their advantage just on the half-time whistle when Sheppard found O’Sullivan with a neat cross from out near the left-hand corner; however, the forward could only direct the ball narrowly wide of Gleeson’s post.
City started the second half with much more intent, and United were forced to concede a corner with Sheppard threatening in the box within 60 seconds. It was simply a sign of things to come.
John O’Flynn joined the action shortly before the hour mark, and his link up play, with Holohan in particular, caused Dunne’s side all sorts of trouble.
Keegan headed over Mark McNulty’s crossbar on 56 minutes as a brief reminder of the danger he could pose. When the game’s second goal came five minutes later, however, it was a bullet of header from Bennett that put daylight between the teams - Billy Dennehy supplying the corner.
Kavanagh might have added his name to the score sheet on 70 minutes when he fired an effort into the Shed End of the ground from the edge of the box, after an initial effort from Liam Miller was blocked.
Ross Gaynor was next to step up and try to add to City’s goal tally. The full-back picked up a loose ball on 72 minutes, took one touch and curled an effort just around Gleeson’s far post.
Dunne’s men did threat once again in the final minutes. A lovely ball from O’Leary in midfield found Gary Shanahan free in McNulty’s box. The City keeper had a relatively quiet evening but made a top class block to keep United’s number 17 at bay.
Substitute Kieran Djilali tried an audacious chip on Gleeson’s net as the match ticked in added time, while O’Flynn was almost on target with a header from another Dennehy corner in injury time.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; John Kavanagh, Alan Bennett, Darren Dennehy, Ross Gaynor; Liam Miller, Gavan Holohan (Kieran Djilali ’72), John Dunleavy, Billy Dennehy (Liam Kearney ’90); Karl Sheppard, Mark O’Sullivan (John O’Flynn ’56).
Substitutes: Kevin O’Brien, Dan Murray, Rob Lehane, Garry Buckley.
Galway United: Connor Gleeson; Alex Byrne, Andy O’Connell, Stephen Walsh, Kevin Garcia (Cormac Raftery ’55); Gary Shanahan, Paul Sinnott, Ryan Connolly (Padraic Cunningham ’39), David O’Leary, Jason Molloy (Conor Barry ’90); Jake Keegan.
Substitutes: Conor Winn, Antaine O Laoi.
Referee: Padraigh Sutton
