Late goal from Doyle seals win for St Pat's over Cork City

LATE WINNER: Cian Coleman of Cork City in action against Mark Doyle of St Patrick's Athletic. Pic: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

League of Ireland Premier Division

Cork City 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

St Patrick’s Athletic continued their title push with a late Mark Doyle header giving them a 1-0 victory over ten-man Cork City at Turner’s Cross.

The Rebel Army had to deal with the dismissal of John O’Donovan midway through the second half; and any sense of semblance after this was shattered with the striker’s cool finish.

There was no shadow boxing during the game over the looming FAI Cup semi-final between the two sides – with City pushing up from the whistle under the instructions of new Head Coach Richie Holland.

This created a chance inside sixty seconds and Ruairi Keating hit this wide at the back post. It was a statement of intent by a group looking to bury any lingering feelings after losing back to back games to Shelbourne and Dundalk over the last seven days.

Another chance was an unmarked Cian Murphy missing the ball inside the area in the second minute.

The best that St Pats could do during this spell of the game was a free-kick, and Ollie Byrne punched this away.

City continued to pepper the St Pats box during the time that was left to play in the first half, but they couldn’t get through a back-line that was organised by Joe Redmond.

They did shout for a penalty when Murphy went down inside the area over a supposed push in the back, and the referee waved this on.

City picked up where they left off after the break and an early shot from Aaron Bolger went just over at the Shed End.

All that momentum was shattered when John O’Donovan was sent off in the 60th minute after receiving a second yellow card.

Just as they seemed to find themselves while playing with ten men, Jamie Lennon’s cross was headed in by Doyle and that decided the game.

Cork City: Ollie Byrne; Cian Coleman, Aaron Bolger, Ruairi Keating, Cian Bargary, Ben Worman (Conor Drinan 61), John Donovan, Andrii Kravchuk (Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh 79), Cian Murphy, Jonas Häkkinen.

St Patrick’s Athletic: Anthony Breslin, Joe Redmond, Jamie Lennon, Chris Forrester, Thomas Lonergan (Jay McGrath 82), Jason McClelland (Conor Carty 68), David Norman, Mark Doyle, Kian Leavy (Ben McCormack 78), Adam Murphy (Alex Nolan 78).

Referee: Oliver Moran