Cork City Foras Co-op 0 - 3 Limerick

• Alan Smith
• Wed, May 12 2010


Limerick are into the quarter-finals of the EA Sports Cup with a surprising but deserved 3-0 victory over Cork City at Turner’s Cross.

The Blues will be left delighted with this performance, particularly the first half, where they attacked ruthlessly. Pat Purcell had opened the scoring, before Robbie Kelleher doubled the advantage just before half-time as the superb Daryl Kavanagh finished any attempts of a Cork fight-back off with a superb strike 28 minutes before the end.

Cork had beaten the Lims in Jackman Park on Good Friday by three goals to one, but there were a host of changes with only three players keeping their place from Friday night’s 2-0 win over Wexford Youths. The most notable inclusion was debutant Gearoid Morrissey, who came back from Blackburn Rovers due to homesickness but his inclusion ended prematurely with a groin injury.

Pat Scully had also made several changes, with five players coming into the side which defeated Athlone 3-1 away on Saturday, and it was the away team that ultimately proved strongest as Purcell and Kavanagh went close within the opening ten minutes.

Kavanagh was left red-faced in the 11th minute though, picking up a yellow card for a poor attempt at simulation inside the area, leaving his manager furious on the sideline. Robbie Kelleher fired over on 18, before disaster struck for Morrissey, tearing his groin just 18 minutes into his Cork City career as Shane Duggan replaced him.

In truth, it looked like Limerick were the home side for much of this tie, rookie striker Rory Morrissey struggling to get anywhere near the ball on his own up top for Cork in the opening half. And it showed, because the Leesiders failed to test Dave Ryan whatsoever in the first period of the game. A couple of crosses flying past the Limerick stopper was all he had to deal with in a tepid attacking display from the home team.

The away team finally broke the deadlock on 36 minutes, after some poor defending from Cork which will certainly leave Tommy Dunne disappointed. Purcell was given far too much space to climb at the back-post and he deftly headed Peter Balough’s corner in with ease.

Devine’s distribution was terrible and he was at fault for a poor ball to Stephen Mulcahy, which Kelleher pounced on and 35 yards out from goal, the attacker almost chipped the Cork ‘keeper only for the ball to bounce back off the crossbar.

Nonetheless, Kelleher had the ball in the net almost instantaneously to double the advantage, a quick one-two with Daryl Kavanagh cutting the defence open before he finished into the top-right corner with Devine stuck to the ground.

With two goals to claw back just to force extra-time, Tommy Dunne introduced Graham Cummins and Ian Turner with the former adding some firepower with Cork moving to 4-4-2, something rarely seen at the ‘Cross nowadays. They showed some sign of attacking intent soon after the break with Eoin Forde blasting over, while Willie Heffernan also missed the target early in the second half.

Cork certainly had the better of the second half and Greg O’Halloran played in Cummins, but his weak shot was easily stopped by Ryan in the 57th minute, as Uros Hojan fired over soon after with a long-range free.

Kavanagh, though, finished off the contest in 62 minutes against the run of play as he advanced forward under little pressure. Nobody was able to track him down and for the second time, Devine was rooted to the ground as the ball flew past with Kavanagh unleashing a piledriver from over 25 yards out.

The home team were denied what appeared to be a penalty on 72 when Heffernan’s shot was handled by Jason Hughes, Graham Kelly waved play on however on a night void in luck for Cork as they failed to break down Limerick.

Cork City Foras Co-op: Michael Devine; Dave Clancy (Ian Turner, ht), Stephen Mulcahy, Greg O’Halloran, Uros Hojan; Willie Heffernan, Dave Warren, Gearoid Morrissey (Shane Duggan, 19mins), Eoin Forde, Paul Deasy (Graham Cummins, ht); Rory Morrissey.
Subs not used: Mark McNulty, Cillian Lordan.
Booked: Mulcahy, Forde, Heffernan, Cummins

Limerick: Dave Ryan; Sean Kelly (Peter White, 66mins), Gavin Roche, Pat Purcell, Daniel Clinton; Jason Hughes, Jeffrey Judge, Thomas Lyons, Peter Balough (Shane Tracy, 56mins); Daryl Kavanagh, Robbie Kelleher (Dave McGrath, 78mins).
Subs not used: Stephen Hickie, John McGuinness.
Booked: Kavanagh, Judge

Referee: G Kelly
Official Attendance: 776
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Daryl Kavanagh.