City held scoreless in Seani & Keats' return home

📷 KBD Photos

It was a highly anticipated night for everyone connected with Cork City FC, as the Turners Cross crowd welcomed back two of their most heralded heroes in recent times; Seani Maguire and Ruairi Keating. The two arrived back leeside to face off against second-placed Athlone Town. 

Keating was returning to City after an underwhelming six months in Inchicore, where he never seemed to settle in, and struggled with injury. Keating and Pats then agreed to mutually terminate the Mayo man’s contract. After leaving Dublin, Keating reached an agreement to come back to City, taking a pay cut to return home. Keating started last time out away to Treaty United, and once again made the first eleven against Athlone.

Meanwhile, Cork City social media was sent into a frenzy for the second time in the matter of a week after the announcement of the return of fan favourite Sean Maguire. Seani spent seven successful years in England after leaving for Preston in 2017, before coming back to Ireland. While multiple premier division clubs had interest in him (Hello John Caulfield), Maguire also decided to return home, agreeing to a multi-year deal. He started this one on the bench.

As for Athlone, the news of City’s two new arrivals may have thrown a spanner in the works, but they were definitely still confident coming into this one, with the Town beating Cork City 1-0 when the two teams last met.

The game started off quite tame if i'm honest, with neither team causing the other massive issues. City seemed to struggle to properly service Ruairi Keating, and the majority of flick-ons he did get weren’t latched onto and ended up in the hands of Lee Axworthy. It was a perfect opening forty five from an Athlone perspective, as they had half chances of their own, but most importantly they managed to fend off the hosts early on, and calm down the very loud atmosphere around the stadium that was being used as motivation for the home side.

The first proper chance of the game went to the hosts and came with a minute to play in the first half. A brilliant slide tackle in midfield by Sean Murray sent Ruairi Keating away down the right channel. Keating chipped the ball across the box to Malik Dijksteel, who attempted to control the ball with his chest, but his control escaped him and the ball was dealt with by Lee Axworthy.

Athlone had an opportunity of their own two minutes into additional time. A long throw from Daniel McKenna was flicked on at the front post by Alex Byrne. Malik Dijksteel failed to clear, before German Fuentes Rodriguez layed it off for Dean Ebbe, whose shot on the turn was fired over from 12 yards out.

Tim Clancy made one change at half time to try to change things up, introducing Jack Doherty to replace Malik Dijksteel.

Despite the City manager’s efforts, the second half began extremely like the first, with both sides creating little to nothing to trouble either goalkeeper. The first real chance of the second half went to the visitors with half an hour to go. Daniel McKenna sent a long ball down the right hand side for Jamar Campion-Hinds to chase. The American managed to get to it and swing a low cross in towards the front post to Dean Ebbe. Just as Ebbe was swinging a boot at it, Cian Coleman crucially slid in and smothered the shot, before the ball was collected by Brad Wade.

Athlone went close yet again just three minutes later. Gideon Tetteh made a brilliant run towards the City box, before being cynically brought down by Barry Coffey at the edge of the box. Aaron Connolly stepped up to take it and rattled his effort off the underside of the crossbar, but the danger wasn’t averted yet. The ball bounced in the City box, before being flicked up and volleyed by Tetteh, but the Shamrock Rovers’ loanee saw his strike go narrowly over.

The best chance of the game went to Cork City with seventeen minutes to go. Sean Murray sent an inswinging corner high towards the front post, which was met by Charlie Lyons, who towered over the Athlone defence to send a header goalward. His header looked destined for the net, but somehow Athlone keeper Lee Axworthy got his fingertips to it to keep it out.

It was a minute later, when the moment the three and a half thousand people in Turners Cross were waiting for, finally happened. Seani Maguire graced the turf of Turners Cross for the first time in seven years, replacing Ruairi Keating in an attempt to try and find the winning goal for City. Maguire came on to a hugely loud reception from all four corners of the ground.

Despite Maguire’s introduction, City continued to struggle to break down Athlone’s low block, and noticeably bypassed Coffey and Murray quite often in midfield by playing balls long. Even still, when Seani was on the ball it was clear that he was levels above most players on the pitch in terms of sheer quality.

The home side did begin to put Athlone’s defence under a lot more pressure in the dying embers of the game, with Cian Coleman going closest of the lot with a header at the back post going over the bar. Despite City’s dominance in possession, they couldn't find a way past Athlone and ended up coming out with a point.

Overall, City really struggled to get past the Athlone defence, and to be honest they failed to provide Ruairi Keating with enough help and service up top. It is a problem that is popping up in games as of late, but maybe seeing Keating and Maguire play together might put an end to it. City do also have the January transfer window to improve the squad so by no means would I be hitting the panic button just yet.

As for Athlone, they'll be more than happy to get out with a point, especially with the firepower City have brought in during the last few weeks. To be fair to Athlone, they definitely could've snuck a goal at some different stages in the game and maybe on another day they would've, but like City they struggled to create anything very clear cut. That being said, they'll be going back to the midlands quite pleased with a point.

My Man of the Match goes to Athlone winger Gideon Tetteh, Tetteh is on loan at Athlone from Shamrock Rovers until the end of the season, after his loan was extended in July in a bid to help Athlone push for promotion. Tetteh caused the City backline loads of issues all night long, using his pace and dribbling to get past Evan McLaughlin on multiple occasions. To me he seems like a player that could be useful in the Premier Division in the next year or two, but I might be jumping the gun a bit there.

City will hope to improve on that performance in a huge cup game next Friday night, where they will host Premier Division side Derry City, in a bid to cause an upset and progress to the quarter finals of the competition. As for Athlone, they also will face Premier Division opposition in the cup on Friday, when they travel south to face off against Waterford.