A crowd of 884 turned out on this Tuesday evening to see Cork City Football Club secure all three points against Salthill Devon.
The game was a lacklustre affair, but Davin O’Neill broke the deadlock late on, much to the relief of the City support in attendance.
It was O’Neill who had the first effort of the game, his headed was cleared off the line when he got on the end of Cathal Lordan’s corner kick. Salthill seemed to surprise City early on, after some slack defending, Mike Kennedy found himself one on one with Mark McNulty. The Ballincollig man was alert to the danger and closed down the shooting angle and saved well to deny the Devon front-man.
O’Neill proved to be a constant threat, and should have done better after he was played in by Dave Warren but his effort was straight at Ronan Forde. Ian Turner came close shortly before half time- when his shot was blocked and put out for a corner, as Salthill continued to frustrate the home side’s attack.
City piled on the pressure after the break, Graham Cummins almost forcing an error from goalkeeper Forde when the latter came close to palming the ball into his own net after a powerful strike from Cummins. Cathal Lordan came agonisingly close with a free-kick moments later.
The Lordan brothers linked up well with some neat passing outside the box, eventually ending up with Cathal firing a shot at goal but Forde was again on hand to deny the Leesiders the opening goal.
The deadlock was finally broken with just ten minutes left on the clock. Substitute Paul Deasy with another assist from the bench, sent the ball into the box and O’Neill was on hand with the left-footed finish and secure the vital three points for his team. Salthill looked dejected, and a double substitution late on did little to spark any potential comeback.
Cork City Football Club
Scorer: O’Neill (80mins).
Starting Line-Up: McNulty, Turner, Rogers, Mulcahy, O’Halloran, Lordan, Lordan, O’Neill, Warren, Cummins, Duggan.
Substitutions: Deasy for Warren (70mins), R.Morrissey for Cathal Lordan (80mins).
Salthill Devon
Starting Line-Up: Forde, McConnell, O’Leighinn, Whelan, Quinlan, Quirke, Dolan, Stenon, Kennedy, Hogan, Browne.
Substitutes: O’Reilly for Kennedy (75mins), Dunne for Hogan (83mins), Marinak for Quirke (83mins). Burke, Casserly.
Referee: S.Templeman.
