Cork City 1 - 0 Wexford Youths

• Alan Smith
• Fri, Aug 06 2010


Graham Cummins appears to be completely unstoppable as his 16th goal of the season, 14 coming in the league itself, put Cork City on the road to their third win on the bounce over Wexford Youths at Turner’s Cross on Friday night.

This was his fourth strike in three games and yet again he headed home to give City the lead and, in truth, without his goals it seems highly likely that the Leesiders would be down towards the lower echelons of the division.

They had struggled quite a bit until the goal, as Noel O’Connor’s Wexford Youths side implemented a strong midfield dominance – reducing the home team to long range punts forward for much of the early stages.

It took all of 17 minutes for there to be a shot on goal as Shane Barrett’s tentative stab rolled into the hands of Pa Holden, and although City did have a couple of decent passing moves in midfield up until that point there was too much tit-for-tat play for much of the opening exchanges.

For too many times this season, City stopper Mark McNulty had been caught too far off his line and it was clear that Youths were aware of such misgivings when Anthony Wolfe’s speculative effort was strenuously gathered by the retreating ‘keeper on 19 as the game threatened to liven up.

Unlike the reverse fixture back in May, the away side played to their strengths early on and were comfortable for most parts, though Billy Woods shot from range on the half hour mark raised a rare cheer from the home support.

Dempsey was certainly one of their most potent players and his incisive moves around the middle created a lot of their better bursts towards goal and there was a feeling that one goal could put them in a magnificent position to go home with a reward – as it turned out, that would never happen.

Holden came in for worthwhile plaudits little under ten minutes before the break when Greg O’Halloran planted the ball upon the head of Cummins and the Youths number 1 made a magnificent stop to keep the game scoreless.

His efforts were worth very little sixty seconds later however as Eoghan Lougheed’s ball to Billy Woods was quickly crossed into the box and Cummins rose in true goalscoring fashion to power the ball into the far corner of the net.

The second period was as tense and rigid as the opening and there wasn’t a sniff of a chance until the 62nd minute where Shane Barrett hit the roof of the stand from a tight angle. The self-proclaimed messiah that is George O’Callaghan was given another half hour to get his fitness back and there was more of a zest in the play from his introduction.

On 68, Furlong burst forward like a gazelle and he looked to be straight through on goal before Gavin Kavanagh lunged in with a spectacular tackle, clearing the ball from danger in a perfectly executed example of defensive play.

Still, the paying spectator will have been left disappointed by the spectacle, if not the result, as chances were almost as rare as a League of Ireland fan at the Aviva last Wednesday during a desperate second half. You could hear the groans emanating from the stands as the game drew closer to an end.

Of course, at 1-0 there was always a chance that Youths could nip in for an equaliser, and even though they failed to threaten in the latter stages, it was equally apparent that City were holding on by the skin of their teeth.

It was certainly not one to remember, but it keeps the home team on a decent run as they make the arduous trip to Derry – where it all began from them at the start of the season.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Ian Turner, Greg O’Halloran, Gavin Kavanagh, Eoghan Lougheed (Gareth Cambridge, 62mins); Davin O’Neill, Shane Duggan, Cillian Lordan, Billy Woods; Shane Barrett (George O’Callaghan, 62mins), Graham Cummins.
Subs not used: Gearoid Morrissey, Paul Deasy, Jonas Piechnik.
Booked: Duggan.

Wexford Youths: Pa Holden; Gareth McCurtin, Aidan McCann, Anthony Wolfe, Chris Kenny; Kevin Rowe (Dean Broaders, 67), Shane Dempsey, Greg Yelverton (Shane Nolan, 73mins), Shane Sinnott (Daniel O’Flynn, 84mins); Danny Furlong, Gary Sheahan.
Subs not used: Michael Mullen, Martin Kehoe.

Referee: Jim McKell (Tipperary)
Attendance: 1560
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Graham Cummins – from his strength and guile to the winning goal he was a step above.