Kearney and Gamble lead City’s ‘fantastic performance’

Shamrock Rovers 1 Cork City 1

Despite a mundane first half performance, it was a second half that Cork City could only dream about. Playing a brand of dazzling football not seen since their mid-summer odyssey through Europe, City teased and tormented the home side for a full forty- five minutes, conjured up attack after attack, plundered the Rovers’ goal and despite a wonderful strike from the outstanding Liam Kearney, could still only come away with a point.

Dolan was positively beaming at full-time. Having admonished his troops at the break, they returned an inspired group on the turnover, lead mainly by the creative forces of Joe Gamble and Kearney.

“That was a fantastic performance from my boys,” said Dolan afterwards. “I’m absolutely thrilled with the way we came here, worked hard and played some great football.”

Though under siege for practically a whole half, the Dublin side still displayed grace under pressure, managing to keep the visitors to an only goal.

“Cork were simply stunning in the second half,” admitted caretaker manager at Rovers, Noel Synott. “But credit to my boys for staying with the challenge. I think a draw was a fair result.”

Joe Gamble gave a midfield masterclass, and alongside George O’Callaghan, has given another dimension to the team. With Alan Bennett out through injury, Colin T. O’Brien was moved to centre-half and slotted in seamlessly.

Rovers gave a debut as well to Russell Payne in goal, and he too was in inspired form between the posts.

Rovers threatened more in the opening half with Terry Palmer giving John O’Flynn little room up front, Mark O’Brien solid in midfield, while Mark Rutherford and Trevor Molloy always looked threatening up front.

The breakthrough came for the Hoops in the 37th minute when Gamble’s back-pass ricocheted off O’Brien into the path of Rutherford who rolled a ball past Devine and in steamed Keith O’Halloran to force it home.

Gamble wasn’t far off in the 51st minute as Cork laid siege to the home goal with a litany of attacks. Gamble again had a good shot tipped over by Payne in the 60th as Rovers defended with their lives.

Kearney was making life difficult for Rovers on the left wing and showed his class with a dipping long-range shot that wasn’t far off in the 63rd.

With Kearney and Gamble dancing their way around Rovers’ players, the breakthrough was inevitable. In the 72nd minute Kearney picked up a ball in midfield and unleashed a stunning drive from thirty yards that landed in the bottom left hand corner. Payne didn’t even move.

SHAMROCK ROVERS: R. Payne; S. Gough, T. Palmer, K. O’Halloran, P. Malone; S. Robinson, K. O’Halloran, M. O’Brien, M. Rutherford; T. Molloy & S. Grant.

Subs: D. Mooney for Robinson (51); A. Martin for Malone (65); P. Caffrey for Grant (87).

CORK CITY: M. Devine; C. Lordan, D. Murray, C.T. O’Brien, D. Murphy; K. Doyle, J. Gamble, G. O’Callaghan, L. Kearney; N. Fenn & J. O’Flynn.

Referee: D. McKeown (Dublin)