Cork City ended their SSE Airtricity League Premier Division campaign on a high as they defeated Bray Wanderers 5-1 at Turner’s Cross on Friday night.
A superb hat-trick from Kieran Sadlier, as well as strikes from Gearoid Morrissey and Barry McNamee, was enough to see City claim their fourth win in a row in all competitions against a Bray side which responded in vain through Jake Ellis.
John Caulfield selected arguably his strongest ahead of their FAI Cup final showdown with Dundalk at the Aviva Stadium on Sunday week and he made six changes to his side which impressively beat Derry City 3-0 at the Brandywell last time out.
City started the game brightly but they couldn’t find a way past Evan Moran in the Bray goal as Graham Cummins missed a chance when through on goal early on before Steven Beattie saw a deflected effort strike the near post.
But the League’s runners-up would be denied for too much longer as Kieran Sadlier – one of the five survivors from the starting eleven that won in Derry- headed home Barry McNamee’s cross from close range to give them the lead after 21 minutes.
The hosts continued to pile players forward with Sadlier again going close on a couple of occasions either side of Garry Buckley sending a curling shot just wide of the far top left corner.
Wanderers remained unchanged from the side that also beat Derry 2-1 at the Carlisle Grounds in their previous fixture last Monday evening.
And they went close to snatching an unlikely equaliser just shy of the half an hour mark but Conor Kenna could only chest Sean Harding’s searching free to the back stick straight at Mark McNulty.
City responded perfectly to that near miss as they grabbed to goals in five minutes to all but seal the three points.
Gearoid Morrissey made it 2-0 as he drilled the ball into the bottom left corner following an incredible surging run forward from left-back Shane Griffin.
Sadlier made it 3-0 with a superb long-range strike which nestled in the bottom left corner after initially crashing against the base of the right post.
Barry McNamee grabbed his sides fourth shortly before the half time break as he blasted the loose ball into the roof of the net after visiting keeper palmed Shane Griffin’s cross into his path.
The interval did little to disturb City’s rhythm going forward as they added a fifth – the second time they netted five in a league game this season - when Kieran Sadlier completed his hat-trick.
Shane Griffin completed his treble of assists as he charged down the left and pulled the ball back to Sadlier who graciously rifled the ball past the keeper with his left foot.
Bray had six supporters that contributed to the overall attendance of 3,142 on the night and they gave them something to cheer about when Jake Ellis coolly finished past McNulty when through on goal in the 49th minute.
The Cork manager soon took the opportunity the make a number of alternations and youngster Cian Murphy almost notched his first goal for the club just past the hour mark.
The Under-19 striker raced onto Sadlier’s through ball but his clipped effort was turned wide of his near post by the outstretched Evan Moran.
Bray’s Jake Kelly also went close to scoring shortly after emerging from the bench but after seeing his shot blocked, the attacker sliced the rebound over the target.
But it was of little consequence as the FAI Cup finalist cruised to the three points which sees them surpass last season title winning tally by a single point.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie (Conor McCarthy 57), Alan Bennett, Sean McLoughlin, Shane Griffin; Conor McCormack, Gearoid Morrissey (Aaron Barry 55); Barry McNamee, Garry Buckley (Cian Murphy 45), Kieran Sadlier; Graham Cummins
Bray Wanderers: Evan Moran; Cian Walsh, Conor Kenna, Sean Heaney, Kevin Lynch; Sean Harding (Cian Maher 75), Paul O’Conor, John Sullivan, Darragh Noone (Rhys Gorman 86); Jake Ellis (Jake Kelly 70), Ger Pender
Referee: Sean Grant
