Cork City left it late to get back to winning ways at home to Longford Town thanks to Charlie Lyons’ late goal.
Cork City 2
Longford Town 1
Cork City came into the game having dropped their first points of the season away to Cobh while Longford were looking for their first win.
The home side started quickly with a long ball down the right channel finding Seani Maguire inside two minutes, but he fired his volley over the bar. Hans Mpongo has started the season as a bright spark for Cork and he almost opened the scoring on ten minutes as he broke down the left inside before cleverly cutting inside, his right footed effort almost finding the far post.
On the other side, Cillian Murphy was tucking into the pocket to play behind Keating and Maguire, which allowed plenty of space for Joshua Fitzpatrick to show off his pace and maintain the width for City.
Fitzpatrick was finding plenty of joy down the right and on the half hour mark he cut inside on to his left foot and unleashed an effort that would likely have given Kian Moore something to think about had it not been deflected behind for a City corner.
The frustration was beginning to grow for the home side as Longford closed down the spaces in the final third, but it was Fitzpatrick again looking to make something happen, as his low cross found Maguire, whose shot was blocked.
Moments later, Longford found themselves with a free kick on the right hand side in a rare foray into the City half. A clever routine saw Pharrell Manuel’s square pass find Alex O’Brien on the edge of the box but he couldn’t keep his effort down.
Maguire had an opportunity to break the deadlock soon after the break when Cillian Murphy found him with a measured pass to put him through on goal, but he sent his left footed effort straight at Kian Moore in the Longford net.
But in the sixty fourth minute the deadlock was finally broken as a low cross into box bounced around before falling to Maguire twelve yards out. His volleyed effort bounced into the ground before finding the far corner, much to the audible relief of the home fans.
It was nearly all square again immediately as some clever build up play between Osaze Irhue and Dean Williams saw them find Murtagh in space but he couldn’t get any purchase on his effort from close range.
The game was opening up now and the chances were coming, as Maguire almost doubled his tally with a diving header at the near post after getting on the end of a Greg Bolger cross.
With a quarter of an hour to go, Longford rang the changes and it was two of those players coming in fresh who combined for the equaliser in the seventy ninth minute as Andy Paraschiv’s low cross found Stefan Ugbesia at the back post to fire into the roof of the net and stun the home side.
But five minutes later, City had a penalty as Ugbesia was deemed to have handled a long range effort from Fitzpatrick. Maguire stepped up and saw his effort saved by Moore, but Charlie Lyons was on hand to turn in the rebound and restore the Cork lead. The table toppers were able to see it out from there to take all three points.
Man of the Match
Joshua Fitzpatrick was involved in all that was good about this performance. A willing runner on the right flank throughout, he consistently caused Longford problems and it was his shot that earned the decisive penalty.
Cork City: Conor Brann, Joshua Fitzpatrick, Rory Feely, Charlie Lyons, Matthew Kiernan, Greg Bolger, Darragh Crowley, Cillian Murphy, Hans Mpongo, Seani Maguire, Ruairí Keating.
Subs: Matthew Murray for Ruairí Keating (57), AJ Bridge for Greg Bolger (80), Harry Nevin for Joshua Fitzpatrick (86).
Longford Town: Kian Moore, Daniel McKenna, Cole Omorehiomwan, Taylor McCarthy, Conor Errity, Sean Moore, Alex O’Brien, Pharrell Manuel, Osaze Irhue, Darragh Murtagh, Dean Williams.
Subs: Kyle Robinson for Pharrell Manuel (74), Aaron Doran for Sean Moore (74), Andy Paraschiv for Dean Williams (74), Stefan Ugbesia for Daragh Murtagh (75).
Referee: Ryan Maher
Attendance: 2,446