Cork City 3

Derry City 0

An understrength Derry City fell to an emphatic defeat at the hands of league leaders Cork City in a one-sided game at Turner’s Cross.

It is now two defeats in succession for Kenny Shiels’ team, who were exposed defensively by a rampant Cork side, who racked up their eighth successive win this season.

The deadlock was broken ten minutes before half-time when Stephen Dooley breezed past Lukas Schubert into the penalty area, and he pulled the ball across the face of goal, where Garry Buckley arrived and nonchalantly flicked the ball past Doherty and into the net to give Cork a 1-0 lead.

Cork were out of the blocks strongly in the second half and they doubled their lead ten minutes in when a brilliant pass forward from Morrissey sent Sheppard through on goal and he slid the ball between the leg of Doherty to make it 2-0. There was an element of controversy about the goal however as Nathan Boyle was bundled over in the build-up, but referee Robert Harvey waved play on.

Any hope of a comeback ended on 64 minutes however as Derry shot themselves in the foot defensively. The Candy Stripes had several opportunities to clear on the edge of their own area but they could not get their foot on the ball, and it fell eventually for Maguire who lashed the ball past Doherty and into the net for 3-0.

The closest that Derry came to a goal all night was a sensational effort from Aaron McEneff with only four minutes to go. The midfielder sent a dipping shot at goal from all of 40 yards which swerved at the last second and McNulty was fortunate to tip the ball onto the crossbar to deny Derry a consolation.

Teams

Cork City: McNulty, Keohane, Bennett, Delaney, O’Connor, Sheppard (Beattie 76’), McCormack, Buckley, Morrissey (Ellis 81’), Dooley (Griffin 84’), Maguire.

Derry City: Doherty, Barry, Jarvis, Schubert (Timlin 60’, McDermott, Monaghan, Low, McEneff, Curtis, Kennedy, Boyle (Daniels 60’).

Referee: Robert Harvey.

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