City beat unthreatening Harps to book a place in the third round

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It was to be the second of two back-to-back meetings at the cross between Cork City and Finn Harps. It was City who came out on top last week, securing a 1-0 win thanks to a Cathal o’Sullivan wondergoal. They were hoping for a similar result this time around to get themselves through to the third round of this year's FAI Cup.

Tim Clancy made two changes to the side that beat the Ballybofey outfit last time out, bringing in Arran Healy and Cian Murphy for Barry Coffey and Jack Doherty. It was a potentially risky decision to change a team that proved it had the capabilities to beat this Harps team (not that that should be celebrated), albeit not performing amazingly well while doing so.

City started on the front foot in this one, with a 6th minute free kick on target from Greg Bolger forcing Harps keeper Tim-Oliver Heimer to punch it away to keep the game at 0-0.

City seemed to have improved creatively from recent games, as they were making more clear cut chances and connecting moves to trouble Harps. Cian Murphy went close at the end of one of these moves halfway through the first forty five. A brilliant diagonal ball from Greg Bolger sent Darragh Crowley away down the right hand side. Crowley managed to cut it back and find Cian Murphy, who lost his balance and could only direct it narrowly wide of the post.

Success Edogun was Harps main threat, creating a few half chances for the visitors, but with no real ability to get any shots away that troubled City keeper Brad Wade.

City were coming closer and closer to taking the lead, and really should've done so with 10 minutes left in the half. A brilliant slide tackle by Conor Tourish found Darragh Crowley on the right hand side. Crowley muscled his way to the byline and delivered a brilliant ball to an oncoming Greg Bolger, whose first time volley somehow flew over the Harps goal from 6 yards out.

Bolger’s blushes were saved just 5 minutes later, as City finally found their breakthrough. Evan McLaughlin launched a ball into Cian Murphy, who brilliantly layed it off first time for Conor Drinan. Drinan gave a perfectly weighted pass laterally to Malik Dijksteel, who set himself before arrowing a shot into the bottom left corner, a shot Heimer could only get fingertips to.

City successfully saw their lead out until half time, with the visitors causing them no real danger of losing it.

To be honest, both teams came out in the second half quite slow and lacked creativity going forward. Finn Harps caused the hosts very little problems for a team that needed a goal, and were generally poor in the final third early in the half. City on the other hand, also looked pretty unthreatening and didn't seem to be looking badly for a goal, which to be fair they didn't exactly need. That being said, they seemed to have lost a bit of the creativity that they seemed to have had in the first half.

It took until the 78th minute for the first real chance of the half. Just seconds after coming on, Harvey Skieters played Jack Doherty down the right hand channel. Jack got a shot away past Harps defender Luke O’Brien, but his shot went safely wide of the near post.

Cathal O’Sullivan almost added to the list of recent wonder goals at the cross just 4 minutes later. His attempted bicycle kick from a Jack Doherty corner was unfortunately blocked by Noe Baba, and then claimed by Heimer to keep Harps in the tie. 

City had a big chance to double their lead with a minute of normal time to play. Barry Coffey played a brilliant one-two with Harvey Skieters, who layed it off for Coffey at the edge of the box, but his first time shot on goal narrowly flashed past the right hand post, one he'll be disappointed with considering there were no defenders in the way.

City had one last chance to put the game to bed late on. O’Brien fluffed his clearance of a looping ball towards the Harps defence, which ended up playing through Jack Doherty, whose tight angled shot forced a good close ranged save from Heimer to keep Harps cup hopes alive.

Heimer’s save would ultimately be to no avail, as City held onto their lead and advanced to the third round of the FAI cup, the draw for which will take place on Tuesday.

Both teams looked considerably slower and more lethargic in the second half compared to the first, which worked in the hosts favour as they already had the lead. I thought City looked better creatively in the first half and had looked to have improved from previous games, but sort of fell back to the struggles of previous games in the second half. But, they got the job done as they have become quite good at this season, but maybe that's partially down to the quality of teams they've faced this year, so it'll be interesting to see if their game translates against bigger teams in the cup.

As for Finn Harps, I thought they were disappointing in the second half for a team that needed to win the game. They were quite poor going forward and didn't seem to threaten City’s lead whatsoever. Success Edogun was their main threat going forward, but he couldn't really direct any of his chances goalward to test Wade. Harps will be hoping to bounce back as they travel down to Limerick next Friday to face Treaty United.

As for Cork City, they'll be hoping to continue their run of results as they welcome Kerry FC for a Munster Derby next Friday at 7.45pm in the cross.