O'Sullivan Screamer Saves City's Blushes

📷 KBD Photos

2,194 fans turned up at Turners Cross last night to watch Finn Harps visit league leaders Cork City who were fresh off of a comfortable win away to Wexford, fans who would have expected similar, in a fixture that was reversed back in April due to the unavailibility of the Turners Cross pitch, were left sorely disappointed.

City came into this one without Cian Bargary, Sean Murray and Niall Brookwell through injury, but all three were spotted attending the game. They did welcome back Matthew Kiernan however, who started the game on the bench after breaking his leg against Kerry on the opening day. City made two changes from their win out east, with Conor Drinan and Jack Doherty preferred to Cian Murphy and Arran Healy.

Finn Harps made their first of two 822 km round trips in 7 days, which won't be pitied by many City supporters due to their involvement in refusing to move the location of academy fixtures against City. The Ballybofey outfit have had a great season, sitting third in the table just three points behind Athlone having played a game extra coming into this bout.

It only took the visitors 17 seconds to give City an early scare after Cathal O’Sullivan lost his footing and gave the ball away to Ryan Rainey, who played in Sean Patton down the left channel, but his shot narrowly passed Brad Wade’s post.

City began to gain control of the game as the first half went on, restricting harps to very little of the ball. Despite this, City were struggling to create clear cut chances and Tim Clancy's experiment of starting Conor Drinan up top, struggled to bear fruit.

City should've had a penalty in the twenty second minute though, when Evan McLaughlin was tripped in the box by Aaron McLaughlin, a trip that could be seen from back in Ballybofey. Referee Daniel Murphy however, disagreed and gave a free kick to Finn Harps and booked City’s number eight for “diving”.

The league leaders continued to dominate possession but just looked scrappy and unthreatening in the final third, something that has been a theme in a few games this season. Harps kept City at bay and saw out the first half with no real difficulty.

City came out after the break and continued to struggle to create chances that threatened the Finn Harps keeper, with really nothing of note happening for the first fifteen minutes of the second half.

That was, until a moment of magic from City’s starboy. Max Johnstons pass in midfield was intercepted by Greg Bolger, whose touch found its way to Cathal O’Sullivan on the right hand side. O’Sullivan began advancing, beating Tony McNamee before cutting in and releasing a worldie of a strike past goalkeeper Tim-Oliver Heimer, much to the delight and relief of the City fans including, by the sound of it, Ruairi O’Hagan in the commentary box.

City went to try and strike while the iron was hot 4 minutes later, with Cathal O’Sullivan skipping past Stephen Doherty along the byline before pulling it back towards Conor Drinan, who had it nicked away by Harps captain Tony McNamee with a sliding challenge. Drinan recovered the ball, before pulling it back to the edge of the box for Barry Coffey, but the Nenagh man's effort went high over the bar.

After the City goal, Harps knew they needed to go at it more to get that all important goal. They came quite close in the 80th minute, when 16 year old Gavin McAteer released Max Johnston down the left wing. McAteer swung in a great delivery which was met by Harps debutant Gavin Gilmore, whose shot was saved at point blank by Brad Wade in the City goal.

There was a brilliant sight in the 86th minute, when after 147 days since breaking his leg vs Kerry, Matthew Kiernan returned to the Turners Cross pitch to a standing ovation, coming on to replace Cathal O’Sullivan.

Harps had one more go in the 94th minute, when a City clearance was sent back in by the head of Matthew Makinson, before falling to Gavin McAteer, whose shot on the swivel was comfortably claimed by Wade. 

That was the last chance Harps would get, as they headed back up to Donegal empty handed. City dominated most of the ball in this one, but truly struggled to threaten the Finn Harps goal.

The two teams were simply separated by a bit of class from Cathal O’Sullivan, who emphatically took his chance when he got it.

City were never in real danger of conceding or losing, but Tim Clancy will be hoping that they can improve in breaking the Finnside outfit down when they go head to head again in a week's time.

My Man of the Match for tonight goes to Cathal O'Sullivan, who really deserves it based on the goal alone.

Cork City face Stoke City in a friendly in the Cross on Wednesday, before hosting Harps once again next Saturday, this time in the FAI Cup.