Cork City 1
Bohemians 2
THE ATMOSPHERE ON Leeside was exactly as raucous as you’d expect it to be as Cork City made their return to the big stage, but it was Grant Horton who made the perfect bow as Bohemians survived a late fright to hold out for a 2-1 victory.
Debutant Horton gave Bohs a dream start to their 2023 campaign and Jordan Flores sent the 700-strong away end into raptures in the second half as Declan Devine’s men, for the most part, stole the show at a sold-out Cross.
Ruairi Keating’s late reply for City sparked a chaotic climax however and, by the end, Bohs found themselves scrambling for three points that had for so long felt inevitable.
The new-look visitors controlled the game against their blunter hosts for 80-odd minutes and, in truth, didn’t even have to especially extend themselves until Keating’s goal resuscitated his long-quietened home ground.
A frenzied final scene saw Bohs withstand a Hail Mary bombardment into The Shed end before they could exhale and celebrate a job done mostly well.
Both sides lined out with significantly different casts to their respective 2022 campaigns in separate divisions. For Colin Healy’s First Division champions, Celtic loanee Toby Oluwayemi began between the sticks with two new Swedish arrivals, Albin Winbo and Kevin Custovic, making up the left half of a four-man City defence.
Belgian attacker Tunde Owolabi, lured down the N8 from St Patrick’s Athletic, started on the left-hand side of the Cork attack.
Bohemians boss Declan Devine made 10 off-season signings and six of them started this curtain-raiser on Leeside, including returning star Keith Buckley who resumed his role as captain after taking a year out last term to travel Asia and Australia. The influential 30-year-old’s deployment on the right-hand side of defence on the night made for an all-new Bohs backline: Paddy Kirk started on the opposite flank and a centre-half pairing consisting of Horton and Kacper Radkowski lined out in front of the more familiar face of James Talbot.
In attack, James Akintunde and Dylan Connolly debuted for the Phibsboro men to either side of Jonny Afolabi — a proverbial new signing in that he made just three appearances last season before his year was ended by injury.
The game was in its infancy when Cork City had their first — and only — sniff at goal in the first half. A long throw by Cian Bargary was flicked on at the near post but Bohs ‘keeper Talbot, as well as the huge away contingent behind him, took a collective breath as the ball looped tantalisingly over the oncoming Tunde Owolabi and wide.
Bohs, too, posed an almost instant aerial threat through left winger Akintunde, whose own looping header was troubling enough that new City ‘keeper Oluwayemi saw fit to tip it over.
Fresh off an impressive pre-season, Devine’s men continued to ask most of the early questions through their dynamic three-pronged attack of Akintunde, Afolabi and Connolly, all of whom had City defenders on skates on the several occasions in which they marauded forward as a unit.
Up the other end, Ruairi Keating was careening around the place like a madman, feeding off scraps when City had the ball but keeping Bohs defenders honest for the vast portions of time in which they went without it.
It was City’s defence that cracked first, however, and Bohs’ opening goal on 19 minutes could scarcely have looked more cosy.
Alistair Coote played a one-two with Afolabi on a short corner and waltzed into the City box before clipping a perfectly weighted cross back as far as debutant Grant Horton. The 21-year-old defender, on loan from Cheltenham Town in England’s League One, was unmarked and massaged a header back across goal, leaving Oluwayemi a mere spectator as the ball nestled in his left-hand corner.
Having landed the first heavy blow, Bohs got behind their jab thereafter, passively controlling proceedings and incrementally sucking the energy out of the packed stands as far as the break.
City couldn’t lay a glove on them. It didn’t help their home faithful that ‘keeper Oluwayemi, only 19, was also enduring a nervy first outing at this level but by half-time, the fans’ sense of frustration had even given way to a kind of accepting lull.
That City were attacking towards The Shed after the break promised to be catalytic but it was Bohs who came within inches of doubling their lead seconds after the restart, a bullet header from Akintunde whistling wide much to the visible agony of the travelling support.
The 26-year-old Englishman went off injured moments later after what looked to be a knock to the head, with Declan McDaid replacing him on Bohs’ left.
The Dubliners’ second arrived from that same side, but it was scored by a central midfielder who went it alone.
Jordan Flores cut in-field and found open space as far as the edge of City’s area. He rifled a shot goalwards — but almost directly at Oluwayemi — only for a slight movement of the ball to totally defy the young keeper. Oluwayemi got his angles and his hands all wrong and the ball ostensibly went through him. It was 2-0 Bohs and, even well in advance of the hour mark, it felt like you could stick a fork in it.
Oluwayemi will have better days in City colours and he did regather himself sufficiently to make a fine stop from Afolabi as Bohs sought to kill the game off. Afolabi, the fit-again former Celtic striker who is still just 23, will prove a menace for League of Ireland defenders this season based on his output in Cork.
Without doing a great deal else, Bohs retained complete control of the second half until 83 minutes when, from nothing, City found the way into game for which they’d spent the night searching.
It was Ruairi Keating — the hosts’ standout performer — whose diligence was rewarded as he pounced upon a mis-control outside the area by Bohs keeper Talbot and rolled the ball into an empty net.
Suddenly, The Cross sounded just as it had at 0-0.
City began to pile on the pressure. Sub Daniel Krezic came close with a header and, with five minutes of stoppage time added by the excellent referee Rob Hennessy, a capacity crowd took to its feet.
They were nearly removed from them as the home side fashioned a series of chances to equalise from long balls, long throws and crosses. The last of them, a stretching header by Darragh Crowley, even deceived a portion of the crowd into believing it had been scored but the dust settled to reveal that Talbot had smothered the ball on the line.
That save proved the last act, and the away end erupted as Bohs exited stage left with all the spoils.
CORK CITY: 1. Toby Oluwayemi; 4. Cian Coleman (C), 6. Alexander Gilchrist, 18. Josh Honahan; 11. Cian Bargary, 10. Barry Coffey, 14. Albin Winbo, 8. Aaron Bolger, 27. Kevin Custovic; 9. Ruairi Keating, 7. Tunde Owolabi
Subs: 2. Gordon Walker, 5. Matt Healy (Winbo 60′), 16. Daniel Krezic (Owolabi 81′), 17. Darragh Crowley (Coffey 82′), 20. James Corcoran, 22. John O’Donovan, 24. Cian Murphy, 28. Jonas Hakkinen, 30. Joe O’Brien-Whitmarsh
BOHEMIANS: 1. James Talbot; 16. Keith Buckley (C), 5. Grant Horton, 13. Kacper Radkowski, 3. Paddy Kirk; 6. Jordan Flores, 17. Adam McDonnell; 8. Alistair Coote; 11. James Akintunde, 9. Jonathan Afolabi, 10. Dylan Connolly
Subs: 7. Declan McDaid (Akintunde 51′), 14. James McManus, 15. James Clarke (Coote 76′), 18. John O’Sullivan, 21. Andrew Baker, 22. Dean Williams (Afolabi 76′), 23. Kristopher Twardek (Connolly 88′), 24. Cian Byrne, 25. Luke Dennison
Referee: Rob Hennessy
