City snatch win late on thanks to Keating header

📷 KBD Photos

St Colmans park was the venue for the fourth and final Cork Derby of the season (and hopefully last league one for a while), with the runaway leaders of the first division Cork City looking to extend their lead at the top of the table against county rivals Cobh Ramblers. 

City were coming off of a narrow defeat to Derry City in the FAI Cup, a game they could've been two or three up in after 45 minutes, but they just couldn't find the back of the net and eventually Derry found their goal to win the game. City also haven’t won a league game since late July, so they went East hoping to change that.

Tim Clancy opted for two changes to the side that got knocked out of the FAI Cup last Friday, with Matthew Kiernan and Niall Brookwell coming into the side, replacing Evan McLaughlin and Cian Coleman

Queenstown have had a bit of a rollercoaster of a season thus far. They started off quite poorly in the league, only collecting seven points from their first nine games of the season. However, recently things have picked up for the Rams, who found themselves two points off of a playoff spot heading into this derby bout.

Both teams came out looking fairly lethargic in terms of the way they moved the ball, with no fast tempo being set by either side early on. There were some chances, with Darragh Crowley going close fifteen minutes in. Cathal O’Sullivan bombed down the left hand side and delivered a ball towards the front post, which was flicked away by Luka Le Bervet. Le Bervet’s clearance rolled towards Crowley at the edge of the box, who struck it first time and his effort just barely flew past the top right corner.

Cobh had their own efforts at putting the ball in City’s net. Jason Abbott played a brilliant low ball out wide to Le Bervet, who cut inside onto his right foot with his first touch. Le Bervet shaped to shoot and struck it low towards Wade’s near post, but the CIty keeper collected it with no hassle.

Jason Abbott was visibly throwing himself into challenges quite a lot early on, and eventually got penalised for a foul twenty five minutes in with a yellow card. City went close again a few minutes later. Greg Bolger brought the ball out of the defence and found Malik Dijksteel on the counter. Dijksteel went central and took on the defender before laying it left to the oncoming Ruairi Keating. Keating struck it hard and low towards Darragh Burke's near post, with Burke having to parry the effort out for a corner.

Cobh hit straight back two minutes later. Regix Madika tested Brad Wade with a half volley from the edge of the box, which was pushed away by Wade. Jason Abbott also sent an effort towards goal from outside the box about ten seconds later, but his shot went flying over the bar.

Unfortunately for Queenstown’s captain, he would only last another eight minutes. Ruairi Keating went to take down a high ball, but not before Abbott came in with a Harald Schumacher esc flying challenge which knocked Keating to the ground. After a few minutes of Abbott alluding to being injured to delay the inevitable, referee Aaron O’Dowd sent the Cobh skipper walking, leaving the hosts down to ten men.

The timing of the red card seemed to benefit the home side, as they could use the break as time to plan and set themselves up for the second half. It was immediately clear we'd be in for a bore fest from Cobh from the first minute of the second half. Cobh set themselves into two batches of four and sat deep to try to keep City at bay.

City got their first proper go at goal in the second half six minutes into it. Cathal O’Sullivan and Matthew Kiernan played a brilliant one-two around the Cobh defence on the left hand side, which sent the latter away down the left channel. Kiernan cut in and pulled it back to the edge of the box for the oncoming Seani Maguire, who shifted the ball onto his right foot, and sent a shot down low to Darragh Burke’s left, a shot that the keeper was equal to.

Despite the fact they were sitting deep, Cobh went agonisingly close to sneaking in front. A long goal kick from Darragh Burke was flicked in behind by Matt McKevitt. McKevitt’s flick-on was latched onto by Luka Le Bervet, who managed to dink a cross in right by the left side of the byline. The cross deflected off of Matt Kiernan before falling into the path of McKevitt. The Cobh striker went to swing a boot at it, but as he was doing so Greg Bolger slid in out of nowhere to poke it away just in time.

Cobh will feel like they should've had a penalty with twenty five minutes to play. Le Bervet received the ball in the left corner but managed to get around Darragh Crowley, before the City full back bundled the Frenchman over in the box. Looked a stonewall penalty to me at the time, not as sure about it looking at the replay though.

City were really struggling to break down the strong Cobh block heading into the latter stages of the game. The visitors couldn't get many shots away, and the ones they did manage to get away didn't trouble Darragh Burke in the slightest.

Cobh looked to have ground out a point with ten men. But, as it is when Ruairi Keating is on the pitch, it's not quite that simple. Heading into the final minute of normal time, City found their breakthrough. Charlie Lyons and Cathal O’Sullivan played a simple one-two between them on the left hand side. Cathal took a touch before sending a ball towards the Cobh penalty area. Ruairi Keating rose highest to meet the cross, sending a fantastic header towards goal, and his finish nestled in the bottom left corner with Darragh Burke getting nowhere near it; Keating made his way the length of the pitch toward the City fans to well and truly announce himself back and (hopefully) better than ever. 

Queenstown immediately looked depleted and, despite some possession in the final third, couldn't get themselves an equaliser and, as many have, fell victim to this City side.

It was the type of game that wasn't at all out of place for City this season, with a lot of the usual issues of creating chances recurring throughout the game. City struggled to break down Cobh’s defensive block and didn't really look like scoring towards the end. Despite the changes Tim Clancy made, it didn't seem to change, and if it wasn’t for Keating’s winner i'd imagine the reaction to the game from the fanbase would be quite a lot worse.

I thought Cobh fought very well with ten men, they defended excellently, and also posed a threat to City’s backline a few times, which surprised me considering the fact that they were reduced to ten men. That might be a negative for City more than anything else to be fair.

My Man of the Match goes to Ruairi Keating. To be honest, not many players on the pitch (if any) for either team deserved the man of the match. But, to pop up when it matters is the most important thing, and he does that without fail. He was pretty decent throughout the game, but once again didn't get the space that he usually thrives in against more offensively minded sides. He did well at times linking up and winning headers, and ultimately that goal saved us from a dire result so i'll give it to him.

City can now win the league as early as UCD away on the 6th of September thanks to Athlone losing to Bray, but the more likely date will be Kerry away on the 13th. Before any of that though, City will host Longford Town next Friday night to try to keep the charge going. As for Cobh, they'll be making the long trip to Ballybofey on the same day, hoping to push to secure a playoff spot.