City pay the penalty as Drogs steal the points

Cork City 0 Drogheda 1

His side remain winless at home after the visitors completed what was effectively a smash-and-grab raid with a penalty in a game they did not deserve to win.

Cork City dominated this match, but they could not push their advantage home and in the end they paid the price. Scottish referee Brian Winter, the first non-Irish referee to take charge of an eircom league game, took a lot of stick at the end, but effectively Cork only had themselves to blame.

The home side started by far the brighter and in the first ten minutes had two clear-cut chances. The first came after Colin O’Brien’s cross from the right found Kevin Doyle, but his header went straight into Dan Connor’s arms in the Drogheda goal.

The second came on the ten-minute mark when Doyle again had United’s defence stretched. Alan Bennett chested down a deep cross into the Drogheda box and his lay-off found O’Brien unmarked. His first-time ball found Doyle, but his header came back of the underside of the crossbar with Connor beaten.

That pretty much set the tempo for the rest of the half, with City dominating proceedings and looking by far the more likely of the two sides to score, but they were unable to translate their obvious superiority into goals.

Consequently, as the half wore on, Drogheda began to find their feet and although they were lacking penetration up front, they at least stopped Cork from making it a completely one-sided affair.

Indeed, their first attempt on goal did not come until the 27th minute and even then it was a relatively poor effort - Declan O’Brien latched onto a slack back-header from Bennett but he ballooned his shot high and wide.

From Richardson’s point of view there was only frustration and this was exacerbated by the fact that although City won numerous corners during the first period, George O’Callaghan’s deliveries were spectacularly inaccurate and did not once find a fellow player or in any way put the Drogheda defence under pressure. Despite their early chances and overall dominance, City went in level at the break when they were by far the better side.

Into the second period and Cork once more started brightly and with greater intensity than they had showed at the end of the first half, keeping Paul Doolin’s side on the back foot.

City were perhaps a little unlucky on 56 minutes when Connor in the United goal came to claim a Dan Murray through ball. Suddenly finding himself running out of room at the edge of his area, he was forced to spill the ball, but the waiting Billy Woods could not direct his shot at the unattended goal and a relieved Connor cleared.

Just a couple of minutes later Connor, by now suffering a terrible barracking from the crowd in the Shed, looked suspect again. A Denis Behan free from 30 yards hit him on the chest and he was very fortunate the ball was cleared.

Then, however in the 68th minute, Drogheda scored completely against the run of play. Declan O’Brien latched onto a long ball from Shane Robinson and was through on goal when Michael Devine brought him down. Referee Winter had no hesitation in awarding the spot kick and Damien Lynch converted easily, while Devine was lucky to stay on the pitch in the circumstances.

Drogheda were down to ten men only a couple of minutes later when Graham Gartland was red carded after a schemozzle in the United area - as a result of which Alan Bennett was also booked - but Cork failed to capitalise from the resulting free.

They proceeded to bombard the Drogheda goal in search of at least an equaliser, thinking they’d found one in added time when O’Callaghan got on the end of a Bennett lay-off but it was ruled out for an offside.

City’s luck was out on a night that should have been a lot more profitable.

CORK CITY: M. Devine; D. Murphy, A. Bennett, D. Murray, N. Horgan (Fenn 85 mins); L. Kearney, C. O’Brien, G. O’Callaghan, B. Woods (O’Halloran 65 mins); D. Behan (J. O’Flynn 61 mins), K. Doyle.

DROGHEDA UNITED: D. Connor; D. Lynch, S. Webb, S. Gray, G. Whelan; G. Gartland, S. Robinson, S. Ristila, D. O’Brien (D. Freeman 86 mins); M. Rooney (D. Tyrrell 75 mins), A. Reilly (J. Sandvliet 37 mins).

Referee: B. Winter (Scottish FA).