League Report: Derry City 0 - 1 Cork City

Cork City continued their recent title revival after narrowly beating Derry City 1-0 at the Brandywell on Friday night. A 13th minute goal courtesy of John O'Flynn was the difference on the night. Derry will regret missing chances on an evening were they were the better side and were unlucky to get a draw if not win the game. 

The beginning of the game was rather cagey with neither side having a shot at goal in the early exchanges. Derry's Danny Ventre was the first man to try his luck but his rather tame shot was easily saved by Mark McNulty in the Cork goal. 

Cork's first chance and only goal came on 13 minutes with Josh O'Shea the provider. The Cork midfielder was found on the left side of the pitch and played the ball in towards O'Flynn who got ahead of the Derry defence and calmly fired past Ger Doherty in the Derry net. Derry fought back well and after 26 minutes were unlucky not to have had their equaliser. Dean Jarvis was played in but his shot was saved well by McNulty in the visitors' net. 

Soon after, Cork nearly had their second when a free kick was lobbed into the Derry box, the ball eventually fell to Doherty's feet but he mixed himself up and nearly put the ball into his own net. Luckily for the keeper it trickled for a corner and saved his blushes.

The home side regained their composure and had another chance shortly after via Stephen Dooley. Great individual play from the winger allowed him to get a shot at goal but his attempt was met by the unbeatable McNulty. 

The last opportunity of the half fell to Patrick McEleney who fired his shot against the crossbar from roughly 18 yards. He was unlucky not to level the score. 

The referee blew the half-time whistle with the score standing at 1-0, in favour of Cork. Apart from their goal, Cork never really troubled Doherty and all the run in was from Derry but the Candystripes just couldn't convert one of their chances. 

The second half began rather sluggishly with no sights at goal until the hour mark. The chance fell to Derry new boy Shaun Kelly who was picked out by McEleney but the full back drilled his shot into the side netting, he probably should have done better. 

Derry were camped in the visitors' half  but couldn't get past McNulty in the Cork net.  

Cork had a few half chances around 80 minutes from the counter attack but they couldn't put the game out of sight. A marvellous defending performance and a tremendous keeper display was preserving their slender lead.

The last chance of the game came soon after from a McEleney free kick. The midfielder dipped the ball over the wall and it seemed destined to beat McNulty but the keeper unbelievably gets a hand to it and tips it over the cross bar for a corner and once again saved his side.

Despite Derry's dominance for vast chunks of the game, they couldn't get their goal and the game ended 1-0. 

Derry City: Ger Doherty; Shaun Kelly (Nathan Boyle 74), Cliff Byrne, Arron Barry, Dean Jarvis (Mark Timlin 80); Danny Ventre (Ryan Curran 90), Barry McNamee, Stephen Dooley,Philip Lowry, Michael Duffy; Patrick McEleney.
Subs not used: Ciaran Gallagher (gk), Shaun Houston, Shane McEleney, Joshua Tracey.

Booked: Dooley (52), Jarvis (64).

Cork City: Mark McNulty, Brian Lenihan, Dan Murray, Darren Dennehy, Ross Gaynor, John Dunleavy, Gearóid Morrissey; Josh O’Shea (Michael McSweeney, 76"),Liam Kearney (Darren Morrissey, 64"),John O’Flynn (John Kavnagh, Half-Time), Mark O’Sullivan.
Subs not used: Kevin O'Brien (gk), Cillian Morrison, Gavin Kavanagh, David O’Leary.

Booked: None.

Referee: Derek Tomney.

Attendance: 700 (estimate)

Extratime Man Of The Match: Mark McNulty (Cork City)