City battle back to share spoils with Derry

Cork City 1 Derry City 1

But this is life in the First Division and, despite the sun-splashed evening, a crowd of just over 2,000 was on hand to see Cork go behind and then put in a transformative second half display to share the honours with the league leaders.

Cork had to go into battle without the experienced Dave Rogers, who missed the game for personal reasons while, playing in behind the Derry striker David McDaid, youth was given its chance by Stephen Kenny as highly rated 17-year-old Thomas McBride made his league debut.

But the early Derry breakthrough came from another source. With just 12 minutes gone, midfielder James McLean received the ball on the edge of the Cork box with his back to goal and, after carving himself out a bit of space, hit a low left-footed shot on the turn which took a wicked deflection en route to the back of the Cork net, leaving Mark McNulty utterly helpless.

A goal out of nothing, perhaps, but reflective of the fact that the league leaders were already looking by far the more composed and purposeful side.

Cork’s main tactic seemed to be the long ball forward to Graham Cummins but the extent to which their attempts to play off the target man were successful could be measured by the purely watching brief maintained by Derry keeper Gerard Doherty for virtually the whole of the first half.

Yet, with the period moving into time added on, Cork were thrown an unexpected life-line via a Cathal Lordon free from the left-hand side which, with Doherty not yet sufficiently roused from his slumber, was headed home with relative ease by Stephen Mulcahy.

The goal against the run of play inspired a livelier start to the second half by Cork and, just short of the hour mark, they almost made it two with their most penetrating move of the match so far. Cathal Lordan’s angled slide-rule pass put Davin O’Neill in behind full back Emmet Friars and, from the winger’s low cross, Cummins’s near-post touch sent the ball just the wrong side of the Derry upright.

The striker came even closer in the 65th minute, when he fastened onto Shane Duggan’s precise ball over the top and, cutting into the box from the left-hand side, struck a powerful shot which produced a fine save from Doherty.

All of sudden, it was shaping up to be the proverbial game of two halves, with Cork now applying all the pressure and Derry rarely getting a sight of the home goal.

With 15 minutes go, a superb volley from substitute Paul Deasy flew inches wide of the Derry goal as Cork came ever closer to completing the comeback. With Shane Duggan controlling the midfield, the game now seemed destined to have only one winner yet, as a reminder of Derry’s threat, a long-range Kevin Deery effort had McNulty relieved to see it go narrowly wide.

But 1-1 it ended, as Cork brought Derry’s 10-game winning streak to an end.

CORK CITY: McNulty, Turner, Mulcahy, O’ Halloran, Hojan, Cathal Lordan, Forde (Deasy 74), Duggan, Cillian Lordan, O’ Neill (Warren 90), Cummins

DERRY CITY: Doherty, McCallion, Scoltock, McChrystal, Friars, McEleney (Sweeney 80), Deery, Molloy, McLean, McBride (Cassidy 61), McDaid

Referee: C Fitzgerald (Galway).