City knocked out of the cup despite encouraging performance

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It was a big occasion under the lights of Turners Cross, as Derry City made the trip across the country to face off against Cork City in the third round of this year’s men’s FAI Cup. It was by far and away the biggest game so far this season for City, with the first division practically wrapped up, the thought of a potential cup run spreaded excitement around the Rebel Army and its fanbase.

Cork City were hoping to improve on a disappointing performance last time out, with the leesiders being held goalless in a 0-0 draw at home to Athlone Town. Tim Clancy made two changes to the side that faced Athlone, with Sean Maguire and Greg Bolger coming into the starting eleven, replacing Josh Fitzpatrick and Barry Coffey.

Derry City are in the thick of a title fight at the moment, albeit one they dont look like they want to win judging by some of their recent performances, including their 1-1 draw at home to Dundalk last time out. They also made two changes from their previous match, with Danny Mullen and Shane McEleney coming in for Mark Connolly and Daniel Kelly.

Despite their first division status, it was the hosts who looked like the better side early on, pinning Derry back at the beginning of the half. They had a chance in the ninth minute from a corner. Evan McLaughlin swung it in, but it landed on the head of Danny Mullen. Mullen headed the ball down, with it landing at the feet of Ruairi Keating, who swung his left foot at it but put the ball over the bar.

City were presented with a golden chance just four minutes later. A long goal kick from Brad Wade was flicked on by Ruairi Keating into the path of Malik Dijksteel. Dijksteel came central with the ball which allowed Sean Maguire to slip into the right hand channel, which left him wide open for Malik to slip the ball into. Dijksteel played it perfectly into Seanis' path, but the striker's low effort across goal barely flew past Brian Maher’s goal, with him being rooted to the spot.

City deployed a 4132 formation which seemed to have caught Derry by surprise. City were pinning Derry right back into their own third, with the Premier Division side resorting to a few counter attacks to try to nick a goal.

City once again threatened the visitors with twenty minutes left in the half. Malik Dijksteel burst through the midfield with the ball, before playing through Ruairi Keating down the right channel. Keating had to take his shot first time, so he prodded the ball towards goal, but Brian Maher stood tall and denied City’s number nine.

The Turners Cross crowd thought that City had gone one nil up with a minute to play in the first half. Seani Maguire drove at the Derry defence and played Cathal O’Sullivan through on goal, with the teenager comfortably slotting it away. Unfortunately for the Rebel Army though, the lino on the Derrynane side of the ground judged Cathal to have been in an offside position. Looking back on the replay, he made the right decision. With seconds of the half remaining, Djiksteel slipped a lovely ball through to Ruairi Keating and as the striker didn't get the cleanest of connections on the ball, Ciaran Coll appeared from nowhere to clear the ball off the line with Brian Maher once again beaten. The sense of what might have been was palpable as the sides left for the half time team talks. 

Both teams came out for the second half rather the same. Derry were just simply struggling to get anything major going and failing to string any proper attack together. As for City, they weren't quite creating the same clear cut chances as they were in the first half, and it made City fans begin to wonder if they would end up regretting not putting away some of their chances in the first half.

They're queries were answered with eighteen minutes to play. Ben Doherty swung in a corner for Derry, something they had come close with multiple times already in the game. Doherty’s corner found the head of substitute Sam Todd, who was wide open to head the ball home and give the visitors a largely underserved lead at the Cross.

Cork City began to struggle to get themselves good chances to equalise, meanwhile Derry were coming closer to a second, with Shane McEleney narrowly missing the target with a header from a corner with ten minutes to play. City then immediately went up the other end with their first proper chance of the half. Cathal O’Sullivan played the ball to the feet of Cian Murphy, who flicked it in behind for Seani Maguire. Maguire latched onto the ball and powered it high towards Brian Maher at a tight angle, who did superbly to tip it over the bar.

City kept the Derry defence on their toes and went close again with five minutes left in the tie. Cathal O’Sullivan tried playing in Seani Maguire on the left hand side. However, Cathal’s Pass was intercepted by Ciaran Coll’s sliding tackle. Coll’s tackle put the ball into the path of Ruairi Keating on the right hand side, who sent a ball fizzing across the box which was met by Seani Maguire, but Seani’s first time effort went flying past the goal.

City just couldn't find that clinicality to level up the tie and eventually they ran out of time, which means City’s time in this year's FAI Cup has come to an end. It was actually quite an impressive performance from the hosts. Going into the game, I was expecting City to get dominated by Derry, and for the Candystripes to demonstrate the ‘levelsssss’ between the First and Premier Division. But, and not for the first time, we've found out those levels might be closer together than we might've thought, especially with Athlone Town knocking out Waterford in the RSC.

Derry were quite disappointing to be honest, and the fact that they are even slightly in the title race tells me a lot about how wide open the Premier Division is right now, and it's given me a bit more hope for our chances of staying up next year.

My Man of the Match goes to Sean Maguire. Maguire continuously caused problems for the Derry defence and proved to all the other (probably slightly salty) league of Ireland fans that the man still has quality and gave us a glimpse into what he could do next season, with Maguire doing pretty much everything except scoring in this tie.

City’s focus turns back to the league, where they’ll travel east to  face off against county rivals Cobh Ramblers next Friday night. As for Derry, they’ve confirmed their place in the quarter final draw, which takes place at 12:30 on Tuesday. Their focus also goes back to the league for now, where they’ll face Waterford next friday night in the RSC.