City rocked as Maguire makes it lucky 13 for Supersaints

Cork City 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Darragh Maguire’s second-half goal separated the two sides as John McDonnell’s side demonstrated great passion coming to Leeside with a game plan and a greater will to succeed.

Still, City remain top of the league after Waterford caused another surprise at the Brandywell, but that will be of little consolation to City boss Damian Richardson who faces four successive away games starting on Monday at Bohemians.

Cork lived dangerously in the opening minutes but slowly eased into a rhythm that has seen the league leaders dominate so many opponents during the season.

This only lasted the first half and again it was George O’Callaghan, playing up front, who provided the inspiration and the creative spark against a highly organised St Patrick’s Athletic back four.

As in last week’s Cup semi-final O’Callaghan didn’t shirk from the unglamorous work of tracking back, making the tackles and linking unselfishly with Denis Behan.

But, as in so many games this season, Cork’s ability to dominate and monopolise possession also leads to frustration at not building up early leads.

Twice in the first ten minutes O’Callaghan tested the Pat’s defence with some deft passes to set up teammates and such audacity became a prelude for the rest of the half.

O’Callaghan linked up with Behan in the 15th minute and the strong centre-forward had his shot blocked by Darragh Maguire.

Joe Gamble, like O’Callaghan, can be inspirational but he could have done better with a Danny Murphy cross, failing to connect sweetly with a superb ball.

Denis Behan did really well when turning onto his left foot and delivered a blistering drive that shaved Barry Ryan’s crossbar. Cork were getting close to a breakthrough and a sign of their confidence was best illustrated when an audacious O’Callaghan lob form 30 yards saw Ryan tip over.

Pat’s threatened sporadically, Larsen should have down better in the 35th minute before Robbie Doyle failed to connect properly five yards from goal.

Colin O’Brien almost got in behind the Pat’s defence to rob a goal but former Newcastle United player Stephen Brennan nicked the ball from his path.

And just before the break, as Pat’s lived dangerously in their own half, Alan Reilly did wonderfully to deny O’Callaghan a clear shot on goal.

The pace slowed down considerably after the interval and 17 ordinary minutes passed before the pivotal moment that decided this encounter.

A Robbie Doyle cross from the right was met at the far post by centre half Darragh Maguire. Devine scrambled to try and keep the ball out and in his desperation the ball hit off his chest into the top corner.

Instead of playing the ball through the defence as practiced to a successful level in the first half, City bombarded the Pat’s rearguard with a litany of high balls. Each time this happened the ball was cleared by a stubborn back four who gave City no clear chance of a header. Then when Vinny Perth got a second yellow card in the 68th minute, City still could not break Pat’s down.

Even with six minutes of injury time and with Pat’s reduced to nine men when Michael Foley received his marching orders, City still struggled to knit the passes together or convert total possession into shots on target.

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan (Woods 75), Bennett, Murray (c), Murphy; O’Donovan, Gamble, O’Brien (Coughlan 87), Kearney; O’Callaghan, Behan (Fenn 75).

ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Ryan; Prenderville, Maguire, Caffrey, Frost (Quigley 75); Brennan, Perth, Foley, Reilly; Doyle (Rowe 83), Larsen (Donnelly 72).

Referee: D McKeon (Dublin)