Keating grabs all three points for City

📷 KBD Photos

Cork City made their long awaited return to the Cross after two weeks without a game. They were matched up against Bohs, who were coming off the back of a 1-0 loss away to Derry City, and were looking to get their second win of the season. City were hoping to continue their good start to the season after a frustrating postponement of the match against Shamrock Rovers, a mere 40 minutes before the game was due to kick off.

Tim Clancy made one change to his side that were held by Galway two Fridays ago, with Cathal O’Sullivan dropping out due to injury, and was replaced by Sean Murray. Tim set his side up in a 4-5-1 formation to start due to Cathal’s unavailability.

As for Bohs, they made five changes from the side that lost 1-0 at the Brandywell, with Smith, Best, Morahan, Brennan and Parsons making way. They were replaced by Grehan, Flores, Buckley, Rooney and Clarke coming into the side.

City were electric early on, with brilliant passages of play on display from the home side. They went so close to taking advantage of their dominance with seventeen minutes gone. Rio Shipston sent in a corner which was half cleared by Bohs. The ball fell to Sean Murray at the edge of the box who fired the ball goalbound, but he saw his effort rebound off the crossbar and away.  

City were the better team, but it was the visitors who took the lead four minutes later, against the run of play. Ross Tierney’s attempted cross was blocked by Rio Shipston. The ball fell to Keith Buckley centrally at the edge of the box, who shifted the ball onto his left foot and unleashed a shot, which deflected off the back of Freddie Anderson and looped into the top right corner.

Bohs had the lead, and began to take the game over and use their momentum to their advantage and came close to grabbing a second with twenty six minutes gone. A Sean Grehan long throw was headed away by City, and picked up by Dawson Devoy. Devoy made a great run towards the City box before shifting it left to an oncoming Ross Tierney, who hit it first time and forced Tein Troost into a great low save. Troost’s parry fell to James Clarke, whose follow up was again smothered by Troost.

City needed a goal to shift the momentum, and they got just that with ten minutes left in the half. Darragh Crowley had the ball out wide on the right hand side. Crowley played a one-two with Greg Bolger before laying it off to Rio Shipston, who took a touch before sending a deep cross towards the box, where Seani Maguire was on hand to nod the ball into the back of the net to get City level.

City went into the half level, but they had the momentum of the goal and were looking to bring it into the second half.

It took a while for the half to spring to life, with both teams trying to get their own grasp on the game. It was City who had the first big chance of the half in the sixty fifth minute. Benny Couto received the ball in his own half and played a long crossfield ball over the Bohs defence where it found the chest of Ruairi Keating in the right channel. Keating controlled it brilliantly but put his effort just over the bar from close range at a tight angle.

City became fueled by their positive play and continued to put pressure on the Bohs backline, even being denied a penalty after what looked to have been a clear push in the back on Ruairi Keating.

After much pressure, City finally had their goal with seven minutes of normal time to play, and it was an all too familiar face who sealed it. After a Bohs attack fizzled out, City began to break on the counter attack. Darragh Crowley released Seani Maguire, who played a brilliant ball forward to Ruairi Keating out on the left hand side. Keating took on Leigh Kavanagh one on one, before cutting inside and releasing a curling effort, which was deflected into the bottom left corner to take the roof off of Turner’s Cross.

Bohs went all out attack. Conor Parsons forced Tein Troost into a great save just thirty seconds after kick off, and Bohs continued to send waves of attacks at the City backline to try find a late equaliser.

These hopes however, would be dampened in the fourth minute of injury time. A cynical foul by Rob Cornwall on Harvey Skieters during a counter attack from City earned Cornwall his second yellow card and he got to do the long walk down to the tunnel, much to the delight of the Shed, waving on.

And that would be that. City had their first win of the 2025 season and it was a much deserved and greatly enjoyable one. After the disappointment of the postponement in Tallaght, it was vital to get the morale of the club and fanbase back up, and City rose to the challenge immensely. The Us vs Them Mentality that the fanbase has been craving these past few years was well and truly on show. It was a really impressive performance from City, keeping their heads after going 1-0 down and managing to get an equaliser and winner, and then being able to fend Bohs off and secure the three points showing good character to grind out the result.

As for Bohs, they headed back to Phibsboro empty handed, despite having periods of the game where they played some good football. All things considered, they were disappointing for large portions of the game and weren't able to capitalise on the moments in the game where they did play well. Questions might be asked over the decision to bench last season's player of the year Kacper Chiorazka, as James Talbot didn't look convincing on the night.