By Liam Mackey
Cork City and StPatrick’s Athletic packed what felt like a season’s worth of sensation into a remarkable opening night at Richmond Park, the reigning SSE Airtricity League champions — reduced to 10 men when Graham Cummins was sent off in the first half and pegged back to 2-2 after racing into what had seemed like a commanding early lead — finally edging a thrilling encounter late on with a Kieran Sadlier goal scored direct from a corner.
Cork City’s Graham Cummins scores against St Patrick’s Athletic in last night’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division clash at Richmond Park.City were reduced to 10 men when Cummins was later sent off. Picture: Laszlo Geczo
Ireland manager Martin O’Neill was among an enthralled attendance of 2,771 who watched this never less than compelling exhibition of thrills and spills but it was the visiting Rebel Army who were singing in the rain when the final whistle blew time on a game which almost defied logic.
After a busy close season of moves in the League of Ireland there was a sprinkling of new faces on both sides at Richmond Park but also a couple of familiar ones missing, notably Christy Fagan, through illness, and the injured Killian Brennan for Pat’s, while Garry Buckley was ruled out for City and, at the start,Gearoid Morrissey was on the bench, Jimmy Keohane coming in to shore up the middle alongside skipper Conor McCormack.
And it was one of the new boys who got Cork off to a flyer inside four minutes, as Barry McNamee scored at the end of the visitors’ very first attack of the game. City ‘keeper Mark McNulty had been kept on his toes right from kick off as Pat’s forced a succession of corners but when Cork broke upfield, they did so in devastating fashion, Karl Sheppard finding Graham Cummins up the right flank and, from his pin-point cross into the box, McNamee, unmarked at the far post, was able to drive the ball home.
Pat’s responded positively, however, and McNulty was once again called into action as the Cork defence came under another brief period of pressure. But then, with just attack number two for the champions, they scored again, Cummins this time finding the perfect finish with a full-blooded volley from a Sheppard flick-on, to put City two ahead in the eleventh minute.
It wasn’t as if Liam Buckley’s men had been playing badly, more the case that Cork seemed at their most dangerous when under pressure, their counter-attacking and clinical finishing simply proving too hot to handle for the Inchicore side.
After a warm round of applause in tribute to Liam Miller – “one of our own,” sang the travelling Rebel Army – was shared right around the ground, hostilities on the pitch were resumed in the 26th minute when, challenging for a high ball, Cummins caught new Pat’s signing Kevin Toner with an elbow which referee Robert Harvey, quickly surrounded by protesting home players, judged to be malicious.
To Cork dismay, the striker was shown a straight red, the second opening night in succession that City were reduced to ten men, after Garry Buckley had been sent off away to Finn Harps at the start of last season.
And things were to get worse for Cork this time around as, in another moment of self-destruction, Aaron Barry inadvertently crashed a Conan Byrne corner into the roof of his own net to cutthe score to 2-1 in the 34thminute.
With Pat’s moving the ball well and using the extra man to their advantage – Simon Madden was a constant menace high up the right flank – it looked like it was going to be backs to the wall all the way through the second half for Cork.
Indeed, almost directly from the restart, it was level pegging, Conan Byrne swivelling in the box to fire home a low shot and send the Richmond Park faithful into raptures.
But it’s precisely under circumstances as trying as these that Conor McCormack tends to come into his own, and the new City skipper was inspirational in leading the resistance, putting his body on the line and frustrating Pat’s attempts to break down the ten men.
City had their moments at the other end of the pitch too, John Caulfield at one point loudly claiming that he’d seen a hand-ball in the box deny Alan Bennett what would have been the collector’s item of a spectacular overhead goal.
But, for the most part, the veteran defender had to do what he does best, helping an impressively disciplined Cork defence to stand firm, Shane Griffin also doing his bit for the cause with one especially brave and crucial block to deny substitute Jake Keegan a clear strike on target.
Then in the 82nd minute, this topsy turvy game took one more unexpected twist, as Kieran Sadlier’s in-swinging corner somehow evaded friend and foe in the box to cross the line and put City back in front, a lead they deservedly retained through to the end.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Clarke, Madden, Toner, Desmond, Birmingham, Byrne, Garvan, Kelly (Markey 65), R Brennan, Turner (Keegan 65), Clarke (Doona 78) Cork City: McNulty, Beattie, Bennett, Barry, Griffin, McCormack, Keohane (Morrissey 65), Sheppard, McNamee, Sadlier, Cummins Referee: Robert Harvey (Dublin)
Cork City and St Patrick’s Athletic packed what felt like a season’s worth of sensation into a remarkable opening night at Richmond Park, the reigning SSE Airtricity League champions — reduced to 10 men when Graham Cummins was sent off in the first half and pegged back to 2-2 after racing into what had seemed like a commanding early lead — finally edging a thrilling encounter late on with a Kieran Sadlier goal scored direct from a corner.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
