IT Match Report on Rovers game
Shamrock Rovers 1 Cork City 3: With the supporters more or less running the club just now, this visit of Cork City to Dalymount Park was widely billed by those in charge as something of "a revolution". As it turned out it was more Dublin 1916 than Paris '68 with only around half of the hoped-for 5,000 turning out.
But, who knows, if the beleaguered Rovers really are somehow restored to greatness perhaps the numbers will retrospectively swell with the passing of time, just as they did in the case of the GPO.
If by some chance it does happen, rest assured it won't be because people will want to claim they saw the match.
Attempts to recharge the Dublin footballing public's enthusiasm for getting out to games have a habit of letting those who attend down and this was no exception. Neither side, it seems, is ever quite able to provide the required spectacle when it matters most.
Last night neither looked capable of stringing together even a few decent passes until early in the second half when initially Cork began to assert their superiority.
Their two goals, from George O'Callaghan and Kevin Doyle in the 50th and 52nd minutes respectively, hardly helped things, however, for while the match undoubtedly required one goal, two threatened to kill off a game that had not previously shown many signs of life.
Up until then there had been some entertainment, yes, but most of it had been provided by the travelling support whose better moments on the night included the song, "don't get injured, you won't get paid," at Willo McDonagh as he limped out of the game with just over half an hour played.
The City fans, of course, probably came expecting a good night. This was their side's fourth consecutive away win of the new campaign and if Damien Richardson's team could only replicate this form at home, then Shelbourne, who they play on Monday night in the Setanta Cup, would clearly have serious cause for concern.
But Cork's performance here was some way short of flawless with Pat McCourt looking more effective than anything the visitors had in midfield for long stretches, while the normally solid City back four struggled occasionally to maintain its composure under any sort of real pressure from the Rovers attack.
Goals, though, have generally been hard to come by for Rovers and their brightest moment before falling two behind was when Mark Rutherford skipped into the area and side-footed past Michael Devine only for David Mooney's shot to be cleared quite brilliantly off the line by Alan Bennett.
With the luxury of a lead to defend, City fell back slightly in the hope of maintaining their run of clean sheets away from home. Rovers promptly took the opportunity to press forward in search of a way back into the game and after McCourt had gone close Gavin McDonnell livened things up when he met Cathal O'Connor's angled free to head home off the underside of the bar.
Finally, there was something for the crowd to get excited about and through the losing stages the locals urged their team on in the hope of seeing an equaliser.
Instead, all the action came at the other end where O'Callaghan made sure of the points for City with a fine 25-yard strike that crashed in off the right-hand post.
Twenty-one of the 22 players then became briefly involved in a melée for which both Cathal O'Connor and Danny Murphy, who attempted to punch his opponent even as they left the pitch, were both shown red cards.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Payne; Gavin, Gough, Phillips; O'Connor, McDonagh (Caffrey, 33 mins), McDonnell, Rutherford (Daniel, 84 mins); McCourt; Mooney (Cameron, 73 mins), Molloy.
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; Woods, O'Brien, O'Callaghan, Kearney; Doyle (O'Donovan, 80 mins), Behan.
Referee: I Stokes (Dublin).
© The Irish Times
