Cork City 0
St Pat’s 1
Dylan O’Connell reports from Turner’s Cross
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC got back to winning ways with a late Mark Doyle goal giving them a 1-0 victory over Cork City at Turner’s Cross.
It could have been a slow game given the looming FAI Cup semi-final between the two sides; it was anything but as the points were needed for a promotion push and a bid to avoid the drop.
City pushed up from the whistle and sent the ball to the back post, and Ruairi Keating flicked this chance wide in the second minute.
There was no relent by the home side and another ball was swung into the area in just the second minute and it narrowly missed an unmarked Cian Murphy.
The best that St Pat’s could do in the face of this was a free-kick that Ollie Byrne punched away. City continued to get forward, but they found it hard to get through a Saints’ back-line that was marshalled by Joe Redmond.
City then had a penalty shout when Murphy went down inside the area as she tried to connect with a cross, but the referee waved this on.
The Saints were left without a shot on target in the first half; and this continued after the break. They seemed to struggle to put together a coherent move in the final third; with an off balance shot from Jamie Lennon epitomising this in the 54th minute.
City established a sense of control after this and that was shattered when John O’Donovan received a second yellow card. The moment that St Pats craved came from a Jamie Lennon cross that Doyle nodded in at the front post in the 76th minute.
City went up the pitch in numbers in injury time but the Dubliners closed out the game and took the points.
Cork City: Ollie Byrne; Cian Coleman, Aaron Bolger, Ruairi Keating, Cian Bargary, Ben Worman (Conor Drinan 61), John Donovan, Andrii Kravchuk (Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh 79), Cian Murphy, Jonas Häkkinen.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Anthony Breslin, Joe Redmond, Jamie Lennon, Chris Forrester, Thomas Lonergan (Jay McGrath 82), Jason McClelland (Conor Carty 68), David Norman, Mark Doyle, Kian Leavy (Ben McCormack 78), Adam Murphy (Alex Nolan 78).
Referee: Oliver Moran