Cork City 2 - 0 Athlone Town

• Alan Smith
• Fri, Jun 10 2011


It might be getting a bit predictable now but once more Cork City picked up the three points in a one-sided game at Turner’s Cross tonight, a brace from Graham Cummins giving them an incredibly comfortable win over a poor Athlone Town.

Another clean sheet, two more for Cummins and a performance of complete domination: it was yet another good night’s work for Tommy Dunne’s side. Indeed, it was also vital to get the three points here with a massive test next week away to Monaghan United.

That trip to Gortakeegan is likely to threaten the Leesiders’ unbeaten record, but for now they still remain firmly in a front-running position alongside Shelbourne for the two promotion spots.

Athlone, meanwhile, have been in poor form of late, winning just once in their last six games in all competitions. That was against lowly Salthill Devon, making the statistic all the more worrying. Their poor form meant the travelling side were always going to be severely under the cosh from the off here.

And with the absence of Joe Woods, Ian Sweeney and Robbie Murray due to the Leaving Cert in addition to the injured duo of Gary Higgins and Brendan Daly, the midlanders were always going to set out their stall defensively. They packed the midfield from the opening second, with the recently re-signed Noel McGee given the onerous task of leading the line by himself.

The mindset of keeping a free-scoring City at bay didn’t last because with just seven minutes on the clock Vinny Sullivan’s cross from wide on the right was met by Cummins and with scouts hot on the striker’s tails, he didn’t do his chances of a big money move abroad no harm when tapping in his 12th of the season from eight yards.

City controlled the game but for some reason Athlone continued to sit-back despite being behind. Perhaps Mike Kerley’s tactic was to keep the deficit to one goal until late-on and throw the kitchen sink forward then. As it transpired, they wouldn’t get a single sniff of goal.

Vincent Escudé-Candau, after his man of the match performance against St Patrick’s Athletic last Monday afternoon, retained his starting position and edging towards half-time he almost got Michael Schlingermann into a bit of bother when the Frenchman’s in-swinging corner was fumbled nervously out of danger.

Kevin Dunne came on for Bobby Tier at half-time and he probably whish he wasn’t introduced after being made a fool of by Cummins just three minutes into the second half after a slack back-pass was intercepted by the league’s top-scorer. He moved onto his left-foot, dispatching a precise strike into the far corner.

This was probably the most dominant performance witnessed at Turner’s Cross so far this season. Mark McNulty didn’t have to make a single save over the 90 minutes, though after his heroics earlier in the week he deserved a quiet night between the posts.

It was all one-way traffic with the industrious Escudé-Candau fizzing narrowly over on two separate occasions in as many minutes, while Shane Duggan spurned a great chance when the goal opened up in front of him after a neat one-two with Cummins.

Even the defenders were getting in on the act, Danny Murphy’s long range shot well-held by Schlingerman. The latter stages of the game became so akin to a training ground exercise that the most notable events were the introduction of young striker Danny Morrissey, making his first start of the season coming on in place of Escudé-Candau, with Paul Danaher receiving a second yellow card in injury time after dragging down Cummins.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Stephen Mulcahy, Gavin Kavanagh, Kalen Spillane, Danny Murphy; Vincent Escudé-Candau (Danny Morrissey, 85), Greg O’Halloran, Shane Duggan, Derek O’Brien; Vinny Sullivan, Graham Cummins.
Subs not used: Ian Turner, Gearóid Morrissey, James McCarthy, Jamie Murphy, Neal Horgan, Eoin McGreevy.
Booked: Kavanagh.

Athlone Town: Michael Schlingerman; Declan Fallon, Mark Walsh, Paul Danaher, Jamie Carr; Stephen Relihan (Kevin Horan, 74), Kevin Williamson, Bobby Tier (Kevin Dunne, h-t), Eoin Monaghan (Ronan Stack, 74), Tommy Barrett; Noel McGee.
Subs not used: Alex Gardiner, Scott Gaynor.
Booked: Williamson, Danaher.
Sent off: Danaher.

Referee: Stuart Templeman (Kerry).

Attendance: 2046.

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Graham Cummins.