- Sean Geary
- Fri, Mar 21 2014
Cork City are joint-top of the Premier Division with Shamrock Rovers after they maintained their excellent start to the season with a hard-earned 3-1 win over Bray Wanderers at a chilly Turner’s Cross.
John Kavanagh, a Billy Dennehy penalty and a late Garry Buckley volley earned the points for City with Bray’s David Scully netting a late consolation.
John Caulfield’s side now have seven points from the first three games while Alan Mathews’ Bray will be disappointed that their early season momentum has been halted on a night when they conceded their first goals of the league season.
Both sides started with a lone striker and City’s Mark O’Sullivan was winning nearly everything in the air for his side early on with City perhaps guilty of going for the long ball too often in the early stages.
Colin Healy was doing a superb job shielding the defence and orchestrating the City attacks as they began to play more football and they were rewarded in the 18th minute when Kavanagh scored the first.
O’Sullivan started the move by chesting the ball out wide to Dennehy and the winger skinned the full-back before squaring the ball for Kavanagh to force home the opener.
City were well on top with Bray relying on their counter attack but the visitors nearly equalised against the run of play when midfielder Shane Byrne blazed over after the City defence made a mess of clearing Graham Kelly’s corner.
City nearly doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time but Buckley’s header grazed the bar on the way over and the score reamained 1-0 at the break.
Bray introduced Ismahil Akinade at the break and the tall striker made an immediate impact as he began to link well with the midfield and bring more flow to the Bray attack.
Bray’s Jake Kelly and Adam Hanlon began to grow into the game but City were still in the ascendancy and made it 2-0 in the 67th minute when substitute Rob Lehane, who looked extremely lively after replacing the injured O’Sullivan, was pushed in the box by Bray defender Niall Cooney.
Dennehy stepped up to coolly dispatch the spot kick and City were two to the good.
Bray began to push men forward in a desperate bid to get something from the game but City punished them with a clinical third five minutes from time. Healy was the creator as his cross from the right eluded the Bray defence and Buckley had plenty of time to chest the ball and drill into the bottom right corner with his right foot.
Bray scored a late consolation through substitute David Scully when he scrambled in an 89th minute goal after Jake Kelly’s header came back off the cross bar.
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Brian Lenihan, Darren Dennehy, Dan Murray, John Dunleavy (Capt.); John Kavanagh (Liam Kearney 64), Gearóid Morrissey, Colin Healy, Garry Buckley, Billy Dennehy (Kevin Mulcahy 90); Mark O’Sullivan (Rob Lehane 58).
Unused Subs: Darren Murphy, Ian Turner, Dave O’Leary, Matt Gledhill (gk).
Bookings: Kavanagh (42).
Bray Wanderers: Shane Redmond; David Webster, Eric McGill (Shane O’Connor 22), Robert Maloney, Niall Cooney (David Scully 79); Adam Hanlon, Dean Zambra, Shane Byrne, Graham Kelly, Jake Kelly; Ciarán Byrne (Ismahil Akinade 46).
Subs not used: Stephen McGuinness, Jamie McGlynn, Gary Curran, Philip Nolan.
Bookings: Cooney (54), Webster (82), S Byrne (88).
Referee: Derek Tomney
Attendance: 2,750
Extratime.ie Man of the Match: Billy Dennehy (Cork City).
