A taste of things to come

Cork City produced tantalising glimpses of exciting form as they opened their season on a winning note in the eircom League at Turner's Cross last night.

Cork City 3 Dublin City 1

They celebrated the return of their centre-forward hot-shot John O'Flynn by comfortably beating the promoted Dublin City with an encouraging second-half performance.

Cork had the benefit of a perfect start with O'Flynn hitting the net within 13 minutes of kick-off. But they had to battle hard for almost an hour afterwards before making the points safe as a determined Dublin City contributed to a highly competitive contest.

The kick-off had to be delayed for fifteen minutes to allow the fans gain entry and by kick-off there was upwards of 6,000 inside the stadium. They were soon in full voice as the dynamic John O'Flynn showed all of his old exuberance on his return after serious injury.

It was O'Flynn's first competitive match in six months and he highlighted just what the home fans had been missing with several trademark attacking runs in the opening quarter.

He repeatedly surged past centre-backs Ben Whelahan and Paul Crowley and after wasting a good chance when he shot straight at goalkeeper Robbie Horgan in the sixth minute he brought the fans to their feet with a goal after 13 minutes.

The goal owed much to the excellence of the delivery from new full-back Danny Murphy. He played a superb ball from half-way over the top of the Dublin defence and O'Flynn controlled the pass on his chest before stepping wide of goalkeeper Horgan and rolling the ball into the net.

Murphy was neat and constructive in his work but his success in setting up O'Flynn's goal proved seductive. He and his back four colleagues too often by-passed midfield and went long with the ball and Cork never controlled the game as a result.

Their football was fragmented and Dublin City thrived as the game developed into a hurly-burly contest. This seemed a waste of resources by Cork who surely would have been better advised to go through midfield and look to George O'Callaghan and Colin O'Brien to dictate the trend and, above all, the tempo.

Dublin came back strongly after conceding the goal and were more than an equal for Cork until Neale Fenn illustrated his class with a beautiful finish in the 66th minute.

Kevin Doyle headed on a pass from Neal Horgan to find Fenn inside the penalty area and with a subtle change of feet he deceived the goalkeeper and slipped a shot into the net through his legs.

Dublin hit back immediately and took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Michael Devine to cut the deficit within two minutes. A free from the right wing from Keith Foy was pushed on to the crossbar by Devine and Gary O'Neill headed in the rebound.

Cork were playing with more composure at this point and it was Fenn who again galvanised the crowd. He set up Cork's third with a mesmerising run along the dead-ball line before turning the ball back for George O'Callaghan to open his season's account in the 73rd minute.

There was time only for referee Jimmy O'Neill to send Cork manager Pat Dolan to the stand for arguing with the fourth official and for O'Callaghan to almost spoil a good night's work by mis-placing a pass that released Dublin substitute Robbie Farrell for a shot which was saved by Devine.

CORK CITY (4-4-2): Devine; Horgan, K. Murray, D. Murray, Murphy; Doyle, O'Callaghan, C. T. O'Brien, Kearney (Woods 90); O'Flynn, Fenn (O'Halloran 90).

DUBLIN CITY (4-4-2): Horgan; Burke, Whelahan, Crowley, Byrne; O'Connor (Farrell 82), Scully, Tierney, Brennan (Foy 60); O'Neill, Collins (Maher 70).

Referee: J. O'Neill (Waterford).