Cork City 1 - 0 Salthill Devon

• Alan Smith
• Fri, Jul 08 2011


Cork City took all three points but they were not at their best in front of goal when Shane Duggan’s second half effort was enough to get the better of lowly Salthill Devon at Turner’s Cross on Friday night.

Just after the hour mark, Duggan struck his third goal in two games to break the deadlock from just ten yards, curling the ball into the right corner of the net.

At times Cork were sloppy in front of goal, wasting several chances against the worst defence seen in the League of Ireland for many years, and they will need to improve to keep up with their fellow promotion challengers.

Incredibly, they had 17 corners, over 20 attempts on goal but could only find the net once.

While Salthill's last visit to Leeside resulted in a shock three points - though City, admittedly, had little to play for in an end of season run-out which finished 2-1 in favour of the Galway team - there was little chance of a repeat result here for them, with the home side taking charge from the outset.

Though City were missing two of their regular back four in the suspended Gavin Kavanagh and Stephen Mulcahy, who missed out because of family reasons, it was always going to be a quiet night for the Leesiders’ rearguard.

Still, despite their dominance, the home team struggled badly to work the ball past Ronan Forde, who even had a dislocated finger and didn’t warm up before the game, until after the hour mark.

It was never going to be a quiet night for Salthill though, especially after shipping an embarrassing 13 goals in their past three games prior to their trip south, and they evidently struggled with Cork's attacking threat from the first moment as Davin O’Neill struck the post in the opening minute.

The last meeting between the sides saw City come out on top, 5-1, in Drom and going into the game at odds of 1/12 with the bookmakers, it was inevitable that they would spend the evening on holiday in Salthill’s box.

Only the finishing touch was absent for the home team, because they held – and this is certainly no exaggeration – three quarters of the possession.

Forde must have felt some pain in his hand when palming away O’Neill’s 10th minute effort, while Duggan’s rebounded effort was scrambled wide from close range.

For long spells, this was more akin to a game of backs-and-forwards and on 12 minutes O’Neill spurned a third opportunity when glancing a header wide from Danny Murphy’s beautiful cross, while Duggan was narrowly wide again on 18.

Graham Cummins blasted over, Vinny Sullivan struck just over from an O’Neill cross and headed wide from Murphy’s pass all in the opening 25 minutes. City had ten chances in that spell, but with only three of those on target, Salthill managed to hold the promotion challengers scoreless.

The Galway side’s only chance of the first half came from Ronan Conlon, who drilled over from 12 yards out. Still, Paul Ski McGee’s team would have been very satisfied to have gone in at the break scoreless.

The second half continued in the same manner, Cummins heading over early on but with lengthy spells of possession in the Salthill half mostly leading to nothing except corners – there was little return from an increasingly nervous Cork.

Finally, at long last, the goal arrived though as Duggan’s effort bounced into the right corner of the net, and although Salthill threatened through Conlon, whose shot was blocked by Greg O’Halloran on 71 minutes, there was no doubt that the one goal would be enough.

O’Halloran and O’Neill both had opportunities off target late on for City but Duggan’s solitary strike was enough on what was still a disappointing night in front of goal for the home team.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Neal Horgan, Greg O’Halloran, Kalen Spillane, Danny Murphy; Daryl Horgan (Derek O’Brien, 64), Shane Duggan (Vincent Escudé-Candau, 82), Gearóid Morrissey, Davin O’Neill; Vinny Sullivan (Danny Morrissey, 75), Graham Cummins.
Subs not used: Ian Turner, Craig Burns, James McCarthy, Jamie Murphy.

Salthill Devon: Ronan Forde; Colm Horgan, Brian Geraghty, Paddy Quinlan, Gearóid O’Leidhin; Paul Smyth (Gerry Dolan, 70), Eugene Greaney, Shane Browne (Luke McConnell, 71), Ronan Conlon, Emmet Shaw; Victor Collins (Niall Brennan, 64).
Subs not used: Charlie Burke, Paul Convey, Timmy Molloy, Etanda Mkololo.
Booked: Victor Collins, Shane Browne.

Referee: Sean Grant (Wexford).

Official Attendance: 1707.

ExtraTime.ie Man of the Match: Danny Murphy – excellent when overlapping down the left-wing.