Barry Robson lays down a marker and sends a message to the rest of the league after his Cork City side cruised to a 4-1 win away from home against Wexford FC.
Wexford 1
Cork City 4
City started strong in the 9th minute, after Ruairí Keating cleverly let the ball run past him to his strike partner Seani Maguire. Maguire drove the ball forward before cutting it back to young Cillian Murphy, who showed experience beyond his 16 years by drawing the contact and earning his side a penalty.
Seani Maguire stepped up to the spot and calmly sent Paul Martin right, opposite to his shot which successfully rippled the bottom-left of the net.
Barry Robson’s side doubled their lead 16 minutes in after Hans Mpongo’s attempt at a one two was intercepted by Zayd Abada, his interception however turned out to be an assist as Mpongo rifled his right-footed shot into the far corner from just inside the left edge of the box.
City were completely dominant, focusing their play down the right-hand side, and gaining a lot of joy down it. Josh Fitzpatrick’s ability to beat his man and cross, and Cillian Murphy’s ability in tight spaces and passing range proved key to City’s successes here.
Most of Wexford’s play was focused down the left-hand side, but regardless not many chances came from they’re attacking efforts.
Around the half an hour mark, Wexford seemed to be gathering a bit of momentum, even though not many quality chances was coming of it.
Wexford’s first quality chance, during this spell of pressure, came in the 35th minute, when a cross with pace from the right-hand side, met the head of Dean Larkin, unfortunately for him the shot forced a save Conor Brann will be very happy to make.
Cork City had another very lucrative chance after Hans Mpongo was slipped through,with lots of space. His square ball to Maguire however was blocked by the Wexford back line.
Mikie Rowe made the right-hand side on the counter-attack very familiar for himself, this time in the last minute of the half, cutting onto his left and narrowly missing the target.
Early into the second half City put the game to bed. In the 52nd minute Cillian Murphy stepped up to take a free kick on the left-hand side. His effort did not gain much altitude, but it looked as that was his intention as Seani Maguire arrived at the front post to head it to the far corner, out of reach for Paul Martin.
Wexford responded with a double substitution with Kaylem Harnett and Jamie Wynne making way for Liam Doyle and Gavin Hodgins in the hope of rescuing something from the game.
Seani Maguire’s crossing attempts finally payed off. In the 66th minute Max Murphy foolishly headed the ball behind him, landing at Maguire’s feet. Maguire easily squares the ball to Keating who taps in a very fortunate goal due to woeful Wexford defending.
Not long after AJ Bridge shortly into his City debut, plays a poor pass back which is intercepted by Doyle, 2 passes later the ball is played into Calum Flynn by Gavin Hodgins. Flynn hits home, slotting it past Brann, to put Wexford off the mark in the game.
Stephen Elliot’s side’s efforts for the rest of the game were rather unimpressive and lacked quality.
Ruairí Keating came close to making it 5 after the Wexford back line refused to head the ball, his shot from an angle was just wide.
Overall Wexford had they’re spells of momentum but lacked quality chance creation.
City on the other hand had large spells of dominance and made the most of these chances that they created for themselves, being direct from the wide and clever while playing through the middle.
Man of the Match: A striker’s job will always be to score goals, and it that case it’s hard to look past Seani Maguire. All be it one of the goals being a penalty, the anticipation necessary for his assist, the beautiful headed goal from Murphy’s ball and his overall link-up and hold-up play throughout was very impressive.
Cork City(3-5-2): C.Brann, R.Feely, F.Kelleher, C.Lyons, J.Fitzpatrick (B.Lee 78′), C.Murphy(A)(YC), G.Bolger (AJ Bridge 68′), D.Crowley, H.Mpongo(G), S. Maguire(PG)(G)(A)(C.Drinan 74′), R.Keating(G).
Wexford (4-4-2): Paul Martin, Evan Osam, Dean Larkin(R.Butler 90+3′(YC), Dylan Hand, Max Murphy, Ryan Ritchie, Zayd Abada, Kaylem Harnett (L.Doyle 55′), Jamie Wynne (G.Hodgins 55′(A)), Jake Doyle, Mikie Rowe(C.Flynn 68′(G)).
Referee: Lucas Keating
Attendance: 1,219