Cork and Galway play out entertaining draw in front of record crowd
A record crowd of 6,393 for a First Division saw everything except a goal but the stalemate against their closest challengers keeps Cork City on the trail to their ultimate prize.
Each of the sides had prevailed 1-0 in the two previous meetings where they played with 10 men but Galway were unable to make it a hat-trick after losing former Cork winger Ed McCarthy to a straight red card after only 15 minutes.
Talk will soon turn to the glorious territory of a run-in, matches shrinking into single figures with the final line calculable by points dropped.
This was far from vintage City but keeping John Caulfield’s side at arm’s length – by a point with a game in hand – was the vital yield from another rocking night at Turner’s Cross.
City had only drawn at home twice this season and both instances came straight after their idle week in the nine-team league.
Colin Healy filled the gap for the third lay-off with a friendly against Stoke City last Saturday but, whether by coincidence or not, the absence of a competitive edge caused a repeat.
They were simply devoid of tempo from the outset, striker Ruairi Keating cutting a frustrated figure up top decrying the sparsity and slowness of service.
Galway had no such issues injecting urgency. Caulfield abides to a fundamental tactical creed of optimising the width of the pitch and hurtling in crosses. Ally Gilchrist had to be alive to the first delivery within 90 seconds, intercepting a right-wing curler from Max Hemmings with Rob Manley waiting to pounce.
When David Harrington misjudged another from the same avenue a couple of minutes later, the Scot was on hand to clear the danger.
City’s struggles were typified by the usually incisive Matt Healy miscuing his pass from deep into the left corner without a team-mate in sight.
It was up to Galway to seize the opportunity and they almost did after eight minutes on the break.
Wonderment has been attached to Stephen Walsh’s conversion from centre-back to the league’s top scorer but the wonder must instead surround the delay.
With a turn of pace to rival most marksmen, he’s a menace in full flight. An outnumbered City defence began back-peddling when he drove from the halfway line, his speculative shot losing sting by taking a deflection.
That didn’t curb the danger though, for Manley latched onto the spinning loose ball and tried to beat the onrushing Harrington but the goalkeeper smothered the danger.
Both participants were slow to rise from the turf but the after effects would be more drastic on the newest stopper in the Ireland U21 set-up.
He would carry on until approaching the interval but each wince from his kick-outs spelt trouble for the ever-present. He was just fortunate that Conor O’Keefe, up from the back, guided his header from David Hurley’s free-kick on the half hour off target.
By that point, Galway were a player short. Cian Bargary’s penchant for pace has been instrumental to Cork’s success and looked all set to cause havoc on a 15th-minute breakaway. That was until the chasing Ed McCarthy scampered across and scythed him down, sending the winger crashing to the ground on the halfway line.
Bargary’s distance from the Galway goal and the presence of two defenders covering couldn’t have categorised McCarthy as last man but referee Sean Grant saw enough intent in the tackle to issue a straight red card.
The incident was marked a classic game-changer. Whatever propensity for risk Galway brought with them south to engineer another change at the top seeped away.
Containment assumed position on the dial and the onus was on their rivals to capitalise if they were to extend the cushion they enjoy.
There would be no sudden switch by the hosts, however, with their passing continually laboured, well off the pace to perforate Galway’s static shape.
Gilchrist had been eased back into action from a hamstring strain sustained four weeks ago at Longford Town but his first start lasted only 24 minutes, perhaps attributable to that early intervention.
Healy used the occasion of Harrington making way a minute before the break to alter his approach, hooking another defender in Josh Honohan for Dylan McGlade. The twinkle-toed winger carries the tools to unlock the meanest of defences but, despite winning a corner on his first contribution, Caulfield’s orders to shadow the livewire on the left generally worked.
City got closer through alternative means. Finally, albeit a weak one through Bargary, they mustered the first attempt at Conor Kearns after 50 minutes. It seemed the screw was being turned when Cian Murphy dashed across his marker to loop a header which the Galway custodian was equal to.
That flurry didn’t dampen the Tribesmen’s ability to pilfer. Their eagerness to test Harrington’s replacement Jimmy Corcoran was apparent as the corners by Conor McCormack were increasingly fired under his crossbar. One, with 20 minutes left, struck the crossbar, the rebound from which Walsh executed an overhead kick that was bravely blocked.
Still, the stopper did what was asked of him by keeping out Walsh’s close-range header from a delicious inswinging free by McCormack.
It was City who finished the stronger. Barry Coffey, on as part of a double-substitution with debutant Louis Britton, twice blazed off-target while Galway substitute Diego Portilla almost misdirected his clearance beyond Kearns.
The late siege saw Murphy ripple the side-netting with a header and another from Coffey forced Kearns to dive full-stretch as Galway held out.
A palatable return for Caulfield in the circumstances but insufficient to avoid requiring snookers in the hunt for automatic promotion.
D Harrington (J Corcoran 44); J Häkkinen, A Gilchrist (M Srbely 24), J Honohan (D McGlade 45); C Bargary, C Coleman, M Healy (B Coffey 55), A Bolger, K O’Connor; C Murphy, R Keating (L Britton 55).
C Kearns; C O’Keefe, J Finnerty, C Lyons; M Hemmings, C McCormack, D Hurley (G Boylan 88), E McCarthy; M Dimas (D Portilla 23); S Walsh, R Manley (W Waweru 66).
Sean Grant (Wexford).
6393.
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