Cork City returned to the top of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division as they defeated Derry City 4-2 at Turner’s Cross on Monday afternoon.
Goals from Kieran Sadlier, Graham Cummins and a brace from Karl Sheppard was enough to see Cork earn their fifth league victory in a row at the expense of Derry, who had recovered from a two-goal deficit to level thanks to strikes from Ronan Curtis and Ronan Hale.
John Caulfield made two changes to the side that defeated Waterford 3-0 on Friday night with Karl Sheppard and Conor McCarthy replacing Conor McCormack and Alan Bennett.
Cork City beat Derry City 4-2 this afternoon in Turner's Cross. Watch the highlights here. pic.twitter.com/92JfiXZIDr
— Soccer Republic (@SoccRepublic) June 4, 2018
And Sheppard wasted no time in making an impression on this fixture as he headed the Champions into the lead after just seven minutes.
The captain for the afternoon got in front of his man before expertly nodding Graham Cummins superb cross past the goalkeeper at his near post for his second league goal of the season.
Derry made three changes to the team that was beaten 2-0 by Sligo Rovers at the Brandywell last time out as Jamie McDonagh, Rory Patterson and Darren Cole taking the starting places from Conor McDermott, Ben Doherty and Nicky Low.
And the visitors created their first opportunity in the 12th minute but after cutting the ball onto his left foot Ronan Curtis scuffed his attempt straight at the City keeper Mark McNulty.
The Leesiders remained in control of proceedings and they went close to doubling their lead shortly before the half time break but neither Kieran Sadlier nor Graham Cummins could beat the keeper with their efforts.
Cork finally grabbed their second moments after the restart as Karl Sheppard coolly slotted the ball past the onrushing Derry keeper after being sent through on goal by Garry Buckley.
Derry, to their credit, failed to let their heads drop and they pulled a goal back after 65 minutes as Ronan Curtis’ shot from distance deflected past Mark McNulty and into the net.Incredibly, the visitors levelled the scores just four minutes later when Ronan Hale brilliantly drilled the ball past the keeper and into the roof of the net at the near post.
But Cork regained their composure and they regained the lead with 18 minutes to play as Kieran Sadlier curled his free-kick through the wall and into the bottom left corner for his 11th goal of the season.And the Rebel Army sealed the win in the 82nd minute as Graham Cummins also netted his 11th league goal of the campaign.
The Cork number nine raced onto a ball over the top of the defence and after his clever header over the onrushing Derry shot stopper struck the crossbar, he was on hand to nod in the rebound from a couple of yards.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Colm Horgan, Conor McCarthy, Sean McLoughlin, Shane Griffin (Danny Kane 74); Jimmy Keohane, Garry Buckley; Barry McNamee, Kieran Sadlier, Karl Sheppard; Graham Cummins (Aaron Barry 85).
Derry City: Gerard Doherty; Jamie McDonagh, Eoin Toal, Gavin Peers (Niall Logue 61), Jack Doyle; Darren Cole, Aaron McEneff, Rory Hale; Ronan Curtis, Rory Patterson, Ronan Hale.
