City adversely advance past Leicester Celtic

📷 KBD Photos

After an unfavourable and controversial week for Cork City, they were looking to secure their first competitive win since April as they took on Leicester Celtic in the second round of the Sports Direct Men's FAI Cup. The fourth tier Leinster Senior League side from Rathfarnham, Dublin were looking to cause the only non league upset of the round thus far.

City boss Ger Nash makes four changes to the side that lost the Munster Derby in the RSC last week, with David Odumosu, Evan McLaughlin, Greg Bolger and Seani Maguire all dropping out, with Conor Brann, Rory Feely, Charlie Lutz and Josh Fitzpatrick all coming in. City also welcomed Conor Drinan and Benny Couto back onto the bench after both returning from injury.

City dominated the game early on and came close to taking the lead after four minutes. Kitt Nelson took a short corner to Josh Fitzpatrick who dinked a ball towards the back post. Leicester Celtic keeper Charles Delmotte came to try to punch it clear but it flew past him and onto the head of Fiacre Kelleher who tried to find the far left corner, but the ball dribbled wide.

City continued to try and carve out some chances and had yet another headed effort go close after ten minutes. Josh Fitz did well to get down the right wing and loft a ball into the box, where an oncoming Malik Dijksteel managed to glance a header narrowly over the bar from ten yards out.

City’s pressure kept up but they were almost hit on the counter following a chance with fourteen minutes gone. A long ball over the right hand side found Josh Fitz at the byline who pulled the ball back. A Leicester Celtic defender managed to get a toe on it but Charlie Lutz got it with his back to goal and hit a shot on the swivel that came off of the post. The visitors saw their chance to counter and sprung to life. A long ball forward to Fionnan O’Reilly left the winger with a good chance. He cut in off the right hand side past Matthew Kiernan and unleashed a goalbound effort, but it was crucially blocked by Fiacre Kelleher to keep the game goalless.

Lutz was threatening the Leicester Celtic backline and will feel he should've bagged his first for City in the twenty second minute. Josh Fitz bombed down the wing and pulled the ball across goal to Lutz who took a touch with his back to goal and hit a shot on the turn from close range, but Delmotte did well to keep it out with his legs.

A training ground free kick routine almost led to the opener for City with four minutes left in the half. Kitt Nelson took it quickly and chipped the ball over the left side of the defence for a wide open Fiacre Kelleher who took it sidefooted on the volley but dragged it wide of the right hand post.

That would be that for the first half as a fairly uninspiring forty five from City paired with a well set up Leicester Celtic side meant the game stayed goalless. 

City started the second half more convincingly than they did the first and two Freddie Anderson headers in two minutes left the home side craving a goal. The first of which came seven minutes into the half from a Kitt Nelson corner. His corner met the head of Anderson who glanced the ball towards the far right corner, but Delmotte managed to tip it around the post at full stretch. The second header came two minutes later. Josh Fitz fired a corner into the box where Anderson managed to meet it, but he fired his header off the bar.

The hosts were still pushing for an opener and almost notched it with a bit of luck. Benny Couto laid the ball off to Kitt Nelson in the box who fired a shot towards goal. The ball fired off of two Leicester Celtic defenders and then off the knee of Couto before the ball rolled towards the far right corner, but Delmotte dove down to keep the ball out.

City’s possession finally paid off as they took the lead with twenty minutes to play. Kitt Nelson played a great one two in the box with Malik Dijksteel, with the latter setting the ball to Charlie Lutz, who skipped by Daniel McCullagh before the centre half brought Lutz down with a trip to give the hosts a chance from the spot. After much deliberation between Charlie Lutz and Evan McLaughlin, Ger Nash decided it was Lutz who would step up to take it, much to the frustration of Evan McLaughlin. Lutz placed the ball down and he buried the pen to get his first goal for the club.

The floodgates began to open as City doubled their lead two minutes later. A long ball forward was controlled brilliantly in the box by Charlie Lutz. Lutz laid it to the edge of the box for Kitt Nelson, where the Preston loanee shifted past a defender and arrowed a shot into the top left corner to double his side’s advantage.

They weren't done there, as City grabbed a third two minutes from full time. Benny Couto whipped an inswinging free kick into the box from the right hand side, where an attempted headed clearance from Kevin Curry ended up in the back of the net as his own goal was the last action of the game.

That was where the game finished up, as despite their struggles in front of goal for just over an hour, a late onslaught was enough to secure their spot in the next round of the cup. It was an uninspiring game for the vast majority of the match as Leicester Celtic sat back and successfully soaked up the pressure from the Leesiders as City really struggled to break the LSL side down. Ultimately though I wouldn't look all that much into the game as all that matters is that we’re through to the next round. WIth hopes of staying up diminishing by the week, the cup is the only thing we have left to look forward to. That being said, I was impressed with the way Leicester Celtic approached the game and set up. They were solid at the back, didn't give up and put their bodies on the line, but they just couldn't quite hold on and ended up falling short.

My Man of the Match goes to Cork City’s Kitt Nelson. Leicester Celtic keeper Charles Delmotte deserves a mention for his trojan effort between the sticks, but the standout player in the game was Nelson. He pulled the strings for City both in midfield and the final third and was electric all afternoon. He capped off his game with a stunning goal that reflected his overall performance.

City will be looking to carry that result into next week as they face Sligo Rovers at the Cross in a last chance saloon game in an effort to stay up.