Cork City 1-0 Monaghan United

• Alan Smith
• Sat, Oct 09 2010


Cork City finally broke their Monaghan United hoodoo at Turner’s Cross this afternoon, with a solitary goal separating the sides for the fourth time this season, while also slowing Mons’ promotion hopes down with three games to play.

Leading into this game, Monaghan were the only side that Cork had not taken points from and it was finally about time that the home side finally got the better of a United side which had beaten them by a single goal on three previous occasions since April.

As always, it was Cork’s prodigal mastermind Graham Cummins that produced the goods when he produced the decisive goal just before the hour mark.

Cummins was unusually quiet during the first half for City, surprising considering there were scouts from cross-channel clubs especially here to watch the league’s top marksman, and generally when the Douglas-man isn’t getting on the ball, Cork falter like a ’88 Toyota Hiace climbing up Patrick’s Hill.

Still, he came to live in the second half and could have actually had a hat-trick only for some good goalkeeping by Gabriel Sava.

With both sides lining up in negative 4-5-1 formations, chances were as rare as a sunny October afternoon on Leeside. It was to be expected however, as Mick Cooke’s Monaghan clearly stated they would be satisfied with a draw, while Cork had little to play for after their defeat to Shelbourne eight days previous quenched their play-off ambitions.

Nonetheless, the home team were still able to grind out a convincing win which severely dented Mons’ hopes of automatic promotion despite there being little else to talk about other than the goal over the 90 minutes.

In a drab opening half, Davin O’Neill headed miles wide on 6 minutes for Cork, while at the other goalmouth Cathal O’Connor had a half-chance easily blocked down 60 seconds later with clear-cut opportunities proving hard to come by.

Cork were probably just shading the game in terms of possession and midfielder O’Neill drilled a low effort across goal in the 15th minute after finding himself in loads of space 15 yards out from Sava’s net.

Monaghan’s star attacker Philly Hughes has already shown his worth at Turner’s Cross this year and shooting into the same goal that he scored in the last time the sides met, a 1-0 win for Mons in the FAI Cup, he drilled a speculative free-kick just wide of Mark McNulty’s right hand post 20 minutes in.

At times the Cork back-line has been like a comedy reel of errors this season and another slide was almost added to the show when Mark McNulty attempted to clear, but the ball struck off Sean Brennan’s back before, luckily for the home team, spinning narrowly wide of the goal.

Half-time came and went with little else to note and as the second half kicked off there was a disconcerting silence around the ground with Monaghan controlling the early passages of play.

Still, the Ulstermen looked like they would gladly run back up north with a point, which would temporarily draw them level with Derry at the summit for a couple of hours at least.

The first decent chance after the break did fall to Mons as Brennan curled a gentle effort just over the bar in the 52nd minute, though they soon watched themselves fall behind.

While Cummins may have been anonymous up until the 58th minute he finally showed his killer instinct by latching onto O’Neill’s delightfully paced pass and driving the ball carefully past Sava, high into the net out of the ‘keepers reach.

The striker was bang on form after that strike and he forced Sava into a remarkable finger-tip save from ten yards out in the 65th minute when Cummins’ right-footed piledriver looked to be dipping under the bar only for Mons’ impressive stopper to get the slightest of touches to divert the ball over his bar.

Cork were always comfortable after taking the lead and Billy Woods saw his strike ricochet wide of the mark with 11 minutes to play. When Cooke withdrew an overall ineffective Hughes and brought on Darragh Hanaphy, it signalled the last throw of the dice for the away side but Cummins went close to doubling the lead on 83 minutes only to be denied by another Sava save.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Ian Turner, Kalen Spillane, Gavin Kavanagh, Billy Woods; Davin O’Neill, Shane Duggan, George O’Callaghan, Gearoid Morrissey (Gareth Cambridge, 61mins), Shane Barrett; Graham Cummins.

Subs not used: Paul Deasy, Jonas Piechnik, Eoghan Lougheed, Simon Holland.

Booked: Cambridge.

Monaghan United: Gabriel Sava; Aidan Collins, Conor McMahon (Ian McNeill, 84mins), Brian Gartland, Shane Grimes; Cathal O’Connor (Aiden Lynch, 74mins), Dom Tierney, Alan Byrne, Sean Brennan, Barry Clancy; Philip Hughes (Darragh Hanaphy, 81mins).

Subs not used: Anthony Costigan, David Quirke.

Referee: Alan Kelly.

Official Attendance: 997.

Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Graham Cummins – a slow start but sterling finish.