- Simon O'Gorman
- Fri, Apr 15 2022
Simon O’Gorman reporting from Turner’s Cross
Furious claims for a Cork City penalty deep in added time were denied at Turner’s Cross on Friday night meaning they and Bray Wanderers shared a scoreless draw in a game that neither side fully deserved to win.
There’s probably a long German word to describe this opening half, in which one team looked comfortably better than the other without actually doing anything to prove it.
Cork City have hit 19 goals in their opening eight League games, and they set up as if confident in their ability to score more, with twin strikers, five players of impeccable attacking credentials across midfield, and just three defenders.
But for all their possession of the ball and undeniable desire to push forwards at every opportunity, they did very little of significance.
Instead, Bray defended well and the plaudits for personal performances were left for Ally Gilchrist at the heart of the home defence, and Aaron Bolger who was impressive in his role as a shield for the City back-three.
Cian Bargery shot high and wide on seven minutes and then showed great skill to skip past his marker four minutes later. But there wasn’t a proper chance until the 26th minutes when Matt Healy released Ruairi Keating on goal and he forced Stephen McGuinness into a courageous save.
Otherwise, first half excitement was limited to a loose pass from Bray defender Jack Hudson that allowed Cian Murphy to dig out a cross to the back post where no City player had arranged to meet it, and a brief spell of volleyball in the Shed while the players waited patiently for the ball to come back.
The home side started the second half clearly understanding that they had something to prove and created an opening almost immediately. Cian Murphy played Keating in but his diagonal run into the box was well covered and his shot was blocked.
Jonas Hakkinen then saw his shot from a Bargery long throw deflected wide before the sense of danger receded and Bray began to find more of a foothold in the contest.
While City continued to dominate Bray were creating some moments of their own. An ambitious ball over the top from Dean Zambra forced Hakkinen to concede a corner at full stretch and, on 61 minutes, Rob Manley flashed a header narrowly wide from Blackbyrne’s cross.
City then produced a concerted spell of impressive approach play with Matt Healy, Darragh Crowley and Cian Bargery all creating forward movement that was easy on the eye, even if Keating and Murphy were not presented with any bone fide goal chances.
With twenty minutes to go strong running from Cian Murphy produced a corner that Gilchrist failed to take advantage of at the back post. But it wasn’t until the 85th minute that the temperature rose to boiling point.
Crowley took a quick throw-in on the right that Keating whipped low into the box, only for Barry Coffey to somehow scoop the ball high over the bar from point blank range. Frustration and furious determination followed as the final few minutes played out.
Rob Manley almost stole it for Bray but then, in added time, City had two penalty calls denied within seconds of each other. Keating went down for the first, under a Crowley cross, but the second one (perhaps more genuine) led to a full on melee in the bray area that took some time and two yellow cards to sort out.
When the final whistle came Bray were deserving of the point that had taken while City, for all their huffing and puffing, simply hadn’t done enough to fully deserve a win.
Cork City: Dave Harrington; Jonas Hakkinen, Ally Gilchrist, Kevin O’Connor; Darragh Crowley, Matt Healy (Cian Coleman 82), Aaron Bolger, Barry Coffey, Cian Bargery; Cian Murphy, Ruairi Keating.
Subs Not Used: Jimmy Corcoran (gk), Uniss Kargbo, Josh Honohan, Kieran Coates, James Doona, Ronan Hurley, Matt Srbely, Mark O’Mahony.
Booked: Ally Gilchrist (90+6), David Harrington (90+6)
Bray Wanderers Stephen McGuinness; Daniel Blackbyrne, Jack Hudson (Hugh Douglas 90), Kevin Knight, Paul Fox; Keith Dalton, Karl Manahan, Darragh Levingston (Darragh Lynch 83), Dean Zambra, Callum Thompson; Rob Manley.
Subs Not Used: Michael Kelly (gk), Eoin Massey, Dean Casey, Ugo Nzekwue, Conor Knight, Vilius Labutis, Zak O’Neill.
Booked: Daniel Blackbyrne (41), Keith Dalton (90+2)
Referee: Eoghan O’Shea
Attendance: 2,773
Extratime Player of the Match: Aaron Bolger (Cork City)
