Barry-Murphy makes triumphant return home as Cardiff outclass Cork City late on

Brian Barry Murphy, Cardiff City manager, waves to family in the stand. Pic: Jim Coughlan.

Cork City 1 Cardiff City 6 

Brian Barry-Murphy made a triumphant return to Leeside on Tuesday night as his Cardiff City side defeated his former club Cork City in a friendly at Turner’s Cross.

Goals from Republic of Ireland international Callum Robinson, Yousef Salech, along with braces from Isaak Davies and Rob Tankiewicz ensured it was a good night for the Cork native in the Cardiff dugout, with his father Jimmy also in attendance.

Brian perhaps did well to also avoid criticism initially for jumping on the hype train by helping to schedule a week-long training camp in his home county in the days leading up to the All-Ireland senior hurling final, which the Rebels will not now be involved in.

Moving on and it must be said the result here was, of course, pretty much irrelevant as the Bluebirds were using this fixture to build their fitness ahead of their return to the championship next month, with their first competitive fixture back in the English second tier seeing them host Welsh rivals Wrexham on August 17.

This was Cardiff’s second friendly of their pre-season campaign and they were looking to at least boost their confidence losing 6-0 to FC Midtjylland of Denmark at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.

They started brightly with Jack Sykes twice forcing goalkeeper David Odumosu into making good saves before Rebel Army trialist, known as Trialist 1 on the team sheet and over the PA, beat his man and called keeper Harry Tyrer into action with a powerful drive at the near post.

Cardiff were taking on a Cork City side clearly preparing to take on Shamrock Rovers in the FAI Cup this Friday night at Tallaght Stadium, and who were still reeling from their 4-3 loss here to Longford Town last Friday night.

Manager Barry Robson, who faced Cardiff four times during his spell at Middlesbrough and once netted in a 3-0 victory in the Welsh capital in May 2011 that all but ended their hopes of earning promotion to the Premier League, rang the changes for this friendly.

Tom McGrath ofCork City and David Turnbull (14), Cardiff City. Pic: Jim Coughlan.

The majority of City’s key players watched on from the Donie Forde Stand, including Seani Maguire, who scored three goals against Cardiff during his time at Preston and was close to transferring there on deadline day of the January transfer window back in 2022.

And it was Maguire’s former Preston and Ireland teammate Callum Robinson who finally ended the stalemate here just before half-time when he expertly headed David Turnbull’s free kick into the far bottom right corner of the Shed End net.

But that lead would only last until the hour as the hosts levelled when Denzell Obenge collected a blocked clearance from the Cardiff defence before composing himself inside the box and seeing his delayed strike deflect past the keeper.

But in the end Cardiff’s extra quality told as five late finishes from Yousef Salech, Isaak Davies (2) and Rob Tankiewicz (2), all from close range, ensured the sizeable, vocal Cardiff following in the St Anne’s End got the victory they came to see.

Matthew Murray, Cork City, Joel Colwill, Cardiff City.

Cork City: David Odumosu, Harry Nevin, Niall O’Keeffe, Chris N’Sa, Matthew Murray, Rory Feely, Ike Manjor-Georgewill, Tom McGrath, Luke Downey, Trialist 1, Trialist 2.

Subs: AJ Mather-Nash, Shane Hallihan, Finn Dalton, Jordan McCarthy, Sean Richmond, Jamie Kelly, Denzell Ogbene, Karim Fonseca, Cian Daly, Evan Peelo.

Cardiff City: Harry Tyrer, Ronan Kpakio, Will Fish, Callum Chambers, Jac Thomas, David Turnbull, Joel Colwill, Callum Robinson, Cian Ashford, Chris Willock, Jack Sykes.

Subs: Joel Bagan, Rubin Colwill, Isaak Davies, Eli King, Dylan Loawlor, Paul Moreno, Perry Ng, Gabriel Osho, Alex Robertson, Yousef Salech, Ollie Tanner, Robert Tankiewicz, Nathan Trott, Matt Turner, Noah Williams.

Referee: Lucas Keating.