Cork City take out Drogheda United in 5 nil wash-out

Cork City 5

Drogheda Utd 0

Cork City dished out a white-washing to visitors Drogheda United with a vintage performance at a wet and overcast Turner’s Cross in front of a crowd of 3,844 last night, writes Noel Spillane.

Goals from Jimmy Keohane, Karl Sheppard (2) and top scorer Seanie Maguire (2) who brought his tally to 13 in 14 games, extended Cork’s unbeaten run to 14 matches and keeps them a massive 13 points clear of defending champions Dundalk at the top of the Premier Division table.

Cork made three changes with Steven Beattie and Gearoid Morrissey out injured and Conor McCormack was serving a one match ban.

Greg Bolger, Alan Bennett and Jimmy Keohane all started as Cork broke the deadlock after 11 minutes with Jimmy Keohane’s first league goal and then three goals in a six minute spell ended this game as a meaningful contest.

And City might have been further ahead by the break but Stephen McGuinness denied Keohane and Dooley and Maguire missed another good chance.

Maguire netted the fifth goal on 61 minutes and substitute Shane Griffin was inches away from a sixth goal with 20 minutes to go.

Cork played out the last 15 minutes with ten men when Garry Buckley retired injured and the home side had made their three substitutions.

Teams:

Cork City (4-2-3-1) – McNulty; Dunleavy, Bennett capt (Griffin 53), Delaney, O’Connor; Bolger, Keohane; Sheppard (Ellis 62), Buckley, Dooley (Campion 66); Maguire.

Subs. Kavanagh, Sadauskas, Phillips & Smith (not used)

Drogheda United (4-2-3-1) – McGuinness; Elworthy (Dunne ht), Gallagher (capt), McGuigan, Kane; K. Brennan, Purdy (Thornton 40); Wixted, Hyland (S.Brennan 74), G. Brennan; Griffin.

Subs. Farragher, McEvoy & Coulter (not used)

Referee: Sean Grant (Wexford)

Official attendance: 3,844.

In the other League of Ireland matches, Bray’s 2-1 loss at home to Bohemians allowed Dundalk to move up to second-place with a two-nil win at Limerick.

David McMillan scored twice for the Lilywhites and Sean Gannon got the other at Markets Field.

Vinny Faherty grabbed a last minute winner for Galway as they got a 2-1 victory against basement side Finn Harps.

Derry City beat Shamrock Rovers 3-1 while St Pat’s and Sligo Rovers finished one-all at Richmond Park.