John Caulfield hails ‘awesome’ Cork City as Sean Maguire seals deal against St Patrick’s Athletic
Two goals from man-of-the-match Sean Maguire sealed the deal in a one-sided second half, after Christy Fagan had cancelled out Alan Bennett’s opener for Cork in what had been a more evenly contested first 45.
“We were awesome in the second half,” said City boss John Caulfield. “We played with a fantastic tempo and intensity and then it helps, of course, to have a striker in the form Sean Maguire is in.
He has been playing phenomenally well but, in fairness, the spirit among the group has been fantastic.
“For the club and supporters, it’s great to be in another Cup final and we’re still going for it in the league.
“Whether we end up with a trophy or not remains to be seen but I think we have a better chance this year.”
Disappointed Pat’s boss Liam Buckley conceded that Cork deserved the win.
“We gave away a couple of poor goals and we didn’t do enough in the second half,” he said.
And while he accepted that a European place is now effectively beyond his side, he insisted that they can still have an impact on the title race.
“It’s important we stick at it until the end of the season,” he said.
Pat’s began brightly enough before, in the eighth minute, Karl Sheppard came close to opening the scoring for the visitors with a close-range header which caused a certain amount of panic in the home defence.
City suffered a blow in the 21st minute when a tight hamstring forced midfielder Gearoid Morrissey out of the action, Gavan Holahan coming off the bench to take his place.
Just three minutes later, the Cork fans in the sunshine behind Brendan Clarke’s goal were celebrating as Alan Bennett headed home a Kevin O’Connor corner to put City ahead.
In the 34th minute, Sean Hoare nearly had the hosts level, his looping far post header from a Billy Dennehy free, dropping onto the top of the City crossbar as Mark McNulty looked on helplessly.
But five minutes later striker Christy Fagan made no mistake, his own far post header – after fine work on the left by Jamie McGrath - beating the dive of McNulty, to make it 1-1 at the break.
The game of headers continued early in the second half as City striker Sean Maguire claimed his 23rd goal of the season, superbly beating two in the air to send Stephen Beattie’s deep cross arcing into the far corner of the net.
With City now playing intelligently and threateningly on the counter while Pat’s struggled to make any kind of impression at all in the final third, it was Maguire who made it 24 for himself and 3-1 for Cork in the 79th minute, as City turned defence into attack with one long pass out from the back.
The in-form striker did the rest, taking the ball outside Darren Dennehy before slotting left-footed past Clarke from a narrow angle.
Cork might even have added to their winning margin whereas a deflated-looking home side barely caused McNulty any discomfort before the final whistle put the Inchicore faithful out of their misery and had the travelling Rebel Army serenading their team into another Cup final.
Whether Cork will meet Dundalk again on November 6 depends on the outcome of tomorrow night’s replay between the holders and Derry City at the Brandywell.
Yesterday, John Caulfield made clear that he thought it was now too late in the day to have the league extended, and pointed out that his side will have played just three games less than the Lilywhites by the end of the domestic season.
Clarke, O’Brien, D. Dennehy, Hoare, Birmingham, Byrne (Timlin 74), Kelly (Barker 74), Desmond, B Dennehy (Corcoran 83), McGrath, Fagan.
McNulty, Beattie, Bennett, Browne, O’Connor, Dooley, Bolger (Healy 88), Morrissey (Holahan 21), Buckley, Sheppard, Maguire (O’Sullivan 84).
Robert Harvey (Dublin).
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