Cork City 0 - 1 St. Patrick's Athletic

• Alan Smith
• Fri, Sep 16 2011


This wasn’t the greatest cup quarter-final witnessed on Leeside but St Pat’s won’t be complaining about that as they reached their third semi-final in four years thanks to a 1-0 win over a spirited Cork City at Turner’s Cross on Friday night.

Danny North scored the game’s only goal after 30 minutes and that meant the Inchicore side became the first team to secure their berth in the last four, though they did have to work hard for it when forced to defend for a key spell in the second half where Cork threatened on several occasions.

It’s 50 years since Pats last won the Blue Riband trophy, and although it is still a little premature to suggest that a possible feat can be achieved, they moved a big step closer with this win in front of 2337 fervent home supporters.

Cork boss Tommy Dunne decided to leave top scorer Graham Cummins, as well as Davin O’Neill and Kalen Spillane on the bench, clearly with an eye on their vital league game with Waterford United on Tuesday night, as well as their EA Sports Cup final with Derry City next Saturday evening and while Pats were favourites going into the game, their case was strengthened further even before the tie got underway.

That meant Vinny Sullivan led the line on his own and chances were few and far between for the home side as, after a tame start to the tie, their best attempt of the opening half came on 28 minutes when Ian Turner’s shot was cleared off the line by a scrambling Evan McMillan with Saints stopper Gary Rogers beaten.

Pats held on to a large enough share of the ball and when the clock struck the half hour mark they deservedly broke the deadlock. Derek Pender played to Stephen Bradley, who in turn fed to North and he turned gracefully before placing a cool effort into the top right corner and past stand-in City keeper James McCarthy.

The introduction of O’Neill and Cummins early in the second half gave the home team a new lease of life and within two minutes of them stepping onto the field, the former forced Rogers into a save. Pats remained dangerous on the counter-attack however, although Derek Doyle’s 56th minute attempt was easily pounced on by McCarthy.

City left-back Danny Murphy then created a glorious chance out of nothing when, after a nice interchange with Derek O’Brien out wide, he struck a daisy-cutter from 25 yards which was deflected narrowly wide with Rogers beaten.

That got the home support off their feet for the first time and what ensued was a bombardment of the Pats defence. Gearóid Morrissey watched a couple of efforts flash wide from range, while Cummins and Shane Duggan both had efforts blocked, but Saints managed to successfully weather the storm and their greater composure shone through in the end as they closed out the game convincingly.

Cork City: James McCarthy; Neal Horgan (Davin O’Neill, 53mins), Gavin Kavanagh, Greg O’Halloran, Danny Murphy; Ian Turner, Gearóid Morrissey, Shane Duggan, Derek O’Brien; Vincent Escudé-Candau (Graham Cummins, 53mins); Vinny Sullivan (Kalen Spillane, 72mins).
Subs not used: Peter Krzanowski, Cathal Lordan, Jamie Murphy, Danny Morrissey.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Gary Rogers; Derek Pender, Conor Kenna, Evan McMillan, Brian Shortall; Anto Murphy (Ian Daly, 84mins), David Mulcahy (Shane McFaul, 63mins), Stephen Bradley (Paul Crowley, 81mins), Derek Doyle; Daryl Kavanagh, Daniel North.
Subs not used: Sean Stewart, Neil Harney, Matt Holland, Chris Bennion.
Booked: Anto Murphy, Daryl Kavanagh

Referee: Derek Tomney (Dublin).
Official Attendance: 2337.
ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Daryl Kavanagh.