Cork City keep Dundalk waiting

It’s a prospect Lilywhites manager Stephen Kenny is relishing even if he refuses to take the outcome for granted.
“To win one league is amazing,” he said.
“Dundalk’s had a litany of successful teams in the past but never retained the league title so to do three in a row would be an incredible achievement by the players. And it would be a great feeling to do it at home, in the town, on Sunday night. The level of passion would be really something great to witness.”
With an eye to next month’s FAI Cup final against Dundalk, Cork City manager John Caulfield made significant changes at Turner’s Cross to the side which went down 3-1 to Pat’s last Monday, with the likes of Garry Buckley and Kenny Browne rested and Sean Maguire and Stephen Dooley on the bench, as into the starting line-up came the Morrisseys Danny and Gearoid as well as Mark O’Sullivan, Dave Mulcahy and Michael McSweeney.
The visitors were the first to briefly threaten, Mulcahy’s giveaway ball allowing Pat’s to initiate a swift attack which finished with Christy Fagan dragging his shot narrowly wide before, at the other end, O’Sullivan had two close-range attempts to head home from a Kevin O’Connor corner only to be foiled on the double by a combination of crossbar and Pat’s Brendan Clarke. Soon after, Karl Sheppard did find the back of the net with another header from another corner, only for referee Paul Tuite to rule the goal out for a push in the box.
But there was no ambiguity whatsoever about Pat’s lead in the 22nd minute.
It might have come against the run of play but Conan Byrne’s free kick from 25 yards out was picture perfect, giving a full stretch Mark McNulty no chance.
City almost responded immediately, McSweeney’s great overlapping run taking him to the end line and, from his precise cutback, Sheppard flicked just wide of the far post.
But the home side only had to wait until the 29th minute to accept what was a gift of an equaliser, Clarke put under pressure in his own goal by a terrible back pass, with O’Sullivan quick to make the most of the ‘keeper’s heavy touch by taking the ball around him and tapping into an empty net.
In what was an entertainingly open if error-strewn game, Pat’s were next to come close, goalscorer Byrne turning inside Kevin O’Connor from the right but seeing his low, left-footed effort scrape the outside of the post.
McSweeney’s rampaging runs were becoming a feature of Cork’s attacking play and when he fired another inviting ball across the face of the Pat’s goal, O’Sullivan was unable to get a clear contact at the far post when he seemed odds on to score, the ball getting stuck under his feet and allowing a relieved Clarke to smother the danger.
At the start of the second half, Sean Maguire came in for Danny Morrissey, and it took a mere four minutes for City’s ace marksman to find the net, a glancing near post header from a Steven Beattie corner earning him his 17th goal of the league campaign and putting the home side ahead for the first time in the game.
And Maguire was involved too in City’s third goal in the 53rd minute, setting O’Sullivan free on the left and, from his clever ball into the box, Beattie did the rest with an emphatic finish in front of the Shed to put City in near total control and give the majority in a crowd of 1,880 something to sing about, even if it’s to the cup rather than the league that the faithful are now looking for a way to end the season on a high.
McNulty, McSweeney, Bennett, Mulcahy, O’Connor, Beattie, Bolger, G Morrissey (Healy 55), Sheppard (Turner 70), D. Morrissey (Maguire 45), O’Sullivan
Clarke, O’Brien, Feeley, Hoare, Birmingham, Byrne, Kelly, Desmond (Lunny 20), Verdon, McGrath (Kinsella 77), Fagan
Paul Tuite (Dublin)