Cork City 1
Sligo Rovers 1
BILLY DENNEHY’S 93rd-minute penalty preserved Cork City’s unbeaten record as Sligo Rovers were denied victory at Turner’s Cross tonight.
When Joseph Ndo’s corner on 88 was turned into the home net by a defender, the Bit o’ Red looked set to take all the points but when Mark O’Sullivan was felled by Kalen Spillane in the Sligo area, referee Paul McLaughlin pointed to the spot and Dennehy did the needful.
Quite how nobody managed to find the net before that was a mystery, but certainly both sides can be thankful to their goalkeepers, Cork’s Mark McNulty and Gary Rogers of Sligo, for a number of excellent saves, particularly in the closing stages.
It was an even affair all through, once the tempo picked up following an early seven-minute stoppage when City’s Garry Buckley took a heavy knock from Rogers, leading to him being stretchered off.
With Kieran Djilali lively, Sligo showed plenty of endeavour, with Danny Ledwith and Aaron Greene both drawing good saves from McNulty. At the other end, Mark O’Sullivan should really have found the target after he had done brilliantly to create an opening following a clearance and just before half-time Sligo captain Alan Keane did outstandingly to deny Liam Kearney after an inviting low ball across by Brian Lenihan.
A Greene chance was the best opportunity in the opening exchanges of the second half but with 20 minutes left things burst into life. O’Sullivan had a header from a Lenihan corner cleared off the line by Joseph Ndo and then sub Ro Lehane drew a great fingertip save from Rogers.
McNulty then had to bravely deny Sligo sub Danny North and it looked like the teams would take a point each. That was before the late sucker-punch.
CORK CITY: McNulty; Lenihan, Murray, Dunleavy, Davoren (Kavanagh half-time); B Dennehy, Murphy, Buckley (O’Leary 10 (Lehane 60)), G Morrissey, Kearney; O’Sullivan.
SLIGO ROVERS: Rogers; Keane, McMillan, Henderson, Gaynor; Djilali (Spillane 90), Cawley, Ndo, O’Conor (Maguire 83), Ledwith (North 64); Greene.
Referee: P McLaughlin (Monaghan).
