Shamrock Rovers 0-5 Cork City
Sean Maguire rounded off a momentous personal week with a brilliantly-taken hat-trick as Cork City downed Shamrock Rovers 5-0 to book a place in the FAI Cup semi-finals.
John Caulfield's City side proved tactically and technically too strong for a callow Rovers side who endured their heaviest-ever defeat at Tallaght Stadium.
Garry Buckley and Karl Sheppard added to Maguire's third-minute opener as the visitors went in at half-time three goals to the good, and Maguire needed just six second-half minutes to complete the rout.
The Leesiders wore their red away strip to avoid a clash with their hosts, but from the first whistle they set the tempo as if they were the home side.
Rovers had already been warned once in the first minute as former Hoop Sheppard exploited the space outside the youthful back three to produce a cross that was well-cleared by David Webster.
It was clear that Caulfield's side had identified where the space was, however, and there were barely three minutes on the clock when they engineered the opening that led to the first goal.
A flat through-ball from Buckley found Maguire's angled run in behind Sean Heaney, and the Kilkenny man nipped the ball past Barry Murphy in the Rovers goal before finishing from a tight angle.
It was Maguire's third goal in the space of seven days after he netted in both of the Republic of Ireland under-21s' World Cup qualifiers against Slovenia and Serbia during the week.
Rovers rowed back immediately and Aaron Dobbs found himself clean through on goal, but Mark McNulty raced out from the City goal to deflect his low shot clear.
Maguire's speed and movement, alongside Sheppard and Stephen Dooley, was causing untold problems for the Rovers back trio, and Dooley could have made it 2-0 after spinning Rob Cornwall only to see his shot well stopped by Murphy.
Dooley wouldn't have to wait long to impact the game, however, and it was his run and lay-off that found Buckley on the edge of the box and, with no pressure on him, the midfielder had time to adjust his body and curl wonderfully past a helpless Murphy.
Again, Rovers came close to an immediate response, as Dobbs nudged on a Sean Boyd knock-down and Pat Cregg's shot appeared bound for the bottom-corner only to squirm wide via the underside of McNulty's body.
Man-of-the-match Sean Maguire on how he helped Cork City to dismantle Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup https://t.co/58ODRNTDkX
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) September 9, 2016
An extensive period of Cork dominance – during which the hosts struggled to get a touch on the ball – eventually finished with the visitors' third of the game, as Dooley, Maguire and Sheppard again linked up to walk the ball home.
Dooley's defence-splitting pass all too easily took three of the Hoops rearguard out of the game, and Maguire was able to compose himself before sliding the ball across goal for the unmarked Sheppard to finish into an empty net.
48 seconds into the second half, it got worse for Rovers as Heaney misjudged a hoofed ball forward from Kevin O'Connor and Maguire had the simplest of tasks to net his second of the game and City's fourth.
Maguire completed his first Cork City hat-trick five minutes later as he latched onto Dooley's through-ball, left Heaney for dead and squeezed the ball under Murphy's legs to cap off a magnificent performance.
Shamrock Rovers: Barry Murphy; David Webster, Rob Cornwall, Sean Heaney (Killian Brennan 60); Simon Madden, Trevor Clarke, Pat Cregg, Stephen McPhail, Gary McCabe; Aaron Dobbs (Dean Clarke 46), Sean Boyd.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie (Michael McSweeney 62), Alan Bennett, Kenny Browne, Kevin O'Connor; Greg Bolger (Colin Healy 51), Garry Buckley (Gavan Holohan 51), Gearoid Morrissey; Karl Sheppard, Stephen Dooley, Sean Maguire.
