Cork hold on for aggregate win

Cork City 0 FK Ekranas 1 (Cork win 2-1 on aggregate)

Cork did the groundwork away from home in Lithuania two weeks ago as they eased through to the UEFA Cup second qualifying round with a 2-1 aggregate win over FK Ekranas.

The Lithuanian league leaders scored after 59 minutes from a set-piece when centre-half Arunas Klimavicius headed in skipper Mantas Savenas’ free-kick.

The ball came back off the post but City goalkeeper Mark McNulty, on his European debut, fumbled the rebound into his own net.

It made for a tense finish to the tie but the eircom League leaders held on for an aggregate victory.

Cork stuck with the same team which earned them the two-goal advantage in Panevezys but they failed to reproduce that form in the opening half and a better quality team than Ekranas would have punished them.

City presented the Lithuanians with their first chance after just seven minutes when Joe Gamble lost possession in his own half but Ekranas skipper Savenas drove the ball high over the bar. It was a bad miss and gave Cork an early scare in front of a sell-out 6,000 crowd.

George O’Callaghan’s glancing header from Danny Murphy’s free-kick dipped wide in the 10th minute before Murphy’s corner forced keeper Arvydas Skrupskis to punch the ball behind his own goal.

O’Callaghan was harshly booked for diving after 24 minutes by Swiss referee Guido Wildhaber, which will keep the ex-Port Vale midfielder out of the second-round first leg on August 11.

Just before half-time Neal Horgan fed John O’Flynn but he dragged his shot wide and, in Cork’s next attack, Greg O’Halloran drove a left-footed effort over the top as the home side went in search of a third goal to try to kill the tie.

Liam Kearney missed a great chance to give Cork the lead when he blazed over from in front of goal early in the second half after good approach work by Horgan, O’Callaghan and O’Flynn.

But the visitors stunned the home support with their goal just before the hour mark when McNulty should have done better.

However, McNulty was quick to make amends with a fine save to deny Povilas Luksys a second goal 10 minutes from the end.