Sligo Rovers 2 - 0 Cork City

Sligo Rovers continued their perfect start to the season with a 2-0 win over Cork City at The Showgrounds on Saturday afternoon. A first-half stunner from Lee Lynch and an Anthony Elding penalty were enough to seal Rovers’ eighth league win in eight games.

Ian Baraclough made one change to the side that defeated Shelbourne last weekend with Ryan Connolly coming into the starting eleven in place of Kieran Djilali. Tommy Dunne, on the other hand, made a number of changes to his team that beat UCD. Denis Behan, Kalen Spillane and Garry Buckley were all promoted from the bench, while Daryl Kavanagh had to settle for a place on the bench. Dan Murray missed out, while Darren Dennehy missed out through suspension.

A bright start to the game from both sides saw plenty of goalmouth action, and the SWAI player of the month for March, Anthony Elding, was guilty of missing a couple of sitters early on. He was gifted the ball by a superb cross from Raff Cretaro, but he just couldn’t get anything on it. Just over 10 minutes later, Elding was left scratching his head when a cross from the right landed right at his feet, but he just couldn’t connect. A bit of messing in the box saw the home fans screaming for handball, but the claims were ignored.

Daryl Horgan sent warning signals to his former club early on. City’s Danny Murphy sent the ball into the Rovers box and Horgan was on the other end of it but was unable to force Gary Rogers into a save. Not a rare moment, though, as Horgan had been getting into good positions throughout the first 45 minutes.

Life was knocked into the home side after a relatively quiet start by their standards. Just after the half-hour mark a corner taken by Lee Lynch found former Grimsby man Elding, and his shot was blocked by Cork bodies in the box. The Leesiders cleared it, but only as far as Ross Gaynor, whose well struck shot was gathered easily by Mark McNulty.

Having had the best chances of the first-half, the Bit o’ Red found themselves ahead on 37 minutes. Ryan Connolly’s brilliant run down the left was sort of cleared, but Lee Lynch picked it up and impressively struck right past Mark McNulty, despite pressure from the onrushing Cork defence.

The league leaders could’ve gone two up if it wasn’t for an excellent double save from Cork ‘keeper McNulty. The home fans leaped out of their seats when it looked as if Aaron Greene had scored, but McNulty had pushed the ball to his left and into the path of Raff Cretaro. The Tubbercurry man just couldn’t beat the ‘keeper though, as he did well to stop Cretaro’s effort.

The champions showed no signs of a let-up in the second-off, and neither did Mark McNulty. A well taken free-kick by Ross Gaynor was well saved by the 32-year-old. The half-time introduction of Daryl Kavanagh meant a change in formation for the visitors, and he certainly made an impact. Rovers are generally the team credited with playing some of the nicest football in the league, but Cork displayed some nice football of their own. A lovely passing move between Daryl Kavanagh, Adam Rundle and Colin Healy ended with the ball hitting the side netting after Kavanagh’s effort. An encouraging sign for Tommy Dunne’s men, who were putting pressure on Sligo.

Denis Behan was gifted a brilliant opportunity from Daryl Kavanagh’s through ball, but he was far too slow and it was cleared by Sligo’s defence. The Bit o’Red were awarded a penalty in the 80^th minute when Kalen Spillane tugged Evan McMillan’s jersey in the City box. Up stepped Anthony Elding, who sent McNulty the wrong way, to score for the fifth competitive home game in a row, his tenth of the season.

City failed to take advantage of a goalmouth scramble late on, as Colin Healy tried to just slip it into the net but a number of Rovers bodies were in the way. They failed to threaten, thereafter, and Rovers did enough to prevent them from even pulling one back.

The champions didn’t need to be at their best, despite the odd threat from the rebels, and once again move five points clear at the top.

Sligo Rovers: Gary Rogers; Alan Keane, Evan McMillan, Jeff Henderson, Ross Gaynor; Raffaele Cretaro (Kieran Djilali, 72), David Cawley (Gavin Peers, 85), Lee Lynch, Aaron Greene, Ryan Connolly (Danny Ventre, 55); Anthony Elding.
Subs not used: Adam Murphy, Iarfhlaith Davoren, Pascal Millien, Liam Martin.

Bookings: Evan McMillan.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; John Dunleavy, Kalen Spillane, Garry Buckley, Danny Murphy; Daryl Horgan, Gearoid Morrissey, Colin Healy, Shane Duggan (Daryl Kavanagh, 46), Adam Rundle (Ian Turner, 63); Denis Behan (Danny Furlong, 69).
Subs not used: Danny Morrissey, Stephen Kenny, Neal Horgan, Kevin Burns.

Bookings: Ian Turner.

Referee: Padraig Sutton.

Attendance: 2,221

extratime.ie Man of the Match: Lee Lynch (Sligo Rovers).