All too easy by the sea for Cork
CORK CITY kept up the pace as leaders of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division at the Carlisle Grounds when putting three goals past Bray Wanderers in a four-minute spell to win 4-0. Barry McNamee (left) celebrates City’s second with Kieran Sadlier (centre) and Shane Griffen.
DUNDALK made it three wins and eight clean sheets in a row as they kept the pressure on SSE Airtricity League leaders Cork City with victory over Bohemians at Oriel Park last night.
Stephen Kenny’s side are the only side yet to suffer defeat so far this season and that was a status that remains unchanged after the first series of games.
Despite losing goalkeeper Gary Rogers to injury inside the opening nine minutes, Keith Long’s side never looked likely to end Dundalk’s run of successive clean sheets, which equalled the club record of achieved by Turlough O’Connor’s title winning side of 1990/91.
The home side were dealt a blow in the early stages when Rogers pulled up with what looked like a calf problem. The veteran goalkeeper had yet to concede in the seven league matches prior to this but the injury brought his night to a premature end as he was replaced by Gabriel Sava.
In truth, Rogers could have probably played out the remainder of the half on one leg such was the lack of attacking threat from Bohs, who registered just one shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes — a shot that was well off target.
Dundalk toyed with their opponents in the early stages and could have taken the lead on 22 minutes following a mix-up in the visitors’ defence. A poor back pass by Dan Casey put Shane Supple into trouble, with the goalkeeper scuffing his attempted clearance straight to Hoban, who couldn’t adjust his feet in time to keep his effort down.
The breakthrough did arrive two minutes later. After a neat interchange of passes on the right involving himself, Jamie McGrath and Gannon, Krisztián Adorján broke into the box only to be upended by Casey. Referee Graham Kelly immediately pointed to the spot, with Hoban dispatching his fifth goal of the season low to the bottom left hand corner as Supple dived the wrong way.
The Lilywhites then doubled their advantage in the 31st minute. A superb slide-rule pass from McGrath slipped Gannon in behind the Bohs defence to the right of goal and he showed superb composure to slip his shot under Supple.
It was almost 3-0 six minutes later with what would have been one of the goals of the season. Karl Moore’s corner was cleared at the near post by Robbie Benson, with Michael Duffy breaking from the edge of his own box past two Bohs defenders into the opposition penalty area but unfortunately for the Derry man Supple managed to save his effort at the second attempt.
The visitors were almost given a way back into the game within a minute of the restart when Keith Ward’s long-range effort looked to catch out Sava. Much to the keeper’s relief it came off the crossbar before he gathered at the second attempt.
Supple then had to come to his side’s rescue on 58 minutes when he clawed a long-range attempt from Adorján around the post.
Gannon then went close to his second on 66 minutes with a drilled shot from wide on the right that fizzed just past Supple’s near post.
Bohs did go close to scoring a minute from the end when Dinny Corcoran’s effort was blocked before almost being turned into his own goal by Chris Shields. Dundalk’s clean sheet record was preserved however by the alertness of Sava.
The Lilywhites then put the game to bed in the 92nd minute when Gannon’s cross picked out Duffy, who created space for himself with a clever Cruyff turn before drilling to the net.