Cork City 0
Shamrock Rovers 0
CORK CITY AND Shamrock Rovers — for the second time this season — played out a scoreless draw tonight in front of a crowd of 4,138 at Turner’s Cross.
It was a disappointing contest between the second and third-placed teams in the Premier Division, characterised by stray passes and a lack of inventiveness in attack.
Although Rovers have a game in hand, City remain four points clear of the Tallaght outfit in second place, but they came closest to snatching the victory when Garry Buckley saw a header strike the crossbar late on.
Rovers made one change in personnel from their last league outing — a 3-2 win over Longford Town — with Ryan Brennan returning in place of Danny North. City, who were 1-0 winners against Limerick last time out in the league, were unchanged.
The first-half was uneventful, to put it mildly. Cork City had the edge in terms of possession but it was the visitors who looked more likely to score. Billy Dennehy’s third-minute free-kick, which went harmlessly wide, was the home side’s only attempt on goal during the opening 45 minutes.
Rovers had the best chance of the first-half in the ninth minute when Keith Fahey’s cross from the right found the head of Ryan Brennan, but his effort went straight at Cork City goalkeeper Mark McNulty.
Brennan shot wide from just inside the box in the 14th minute after Gavan Holohan had coughed up possession, and City fans breathed a sigh of relief three minutes later when McNulty almost let a Brandon Miele shot slip through his hands.
Miele sent a free-kick off target in the 37th minute, before Mikey Drennan struck the side netting just shy of the half-time whistle, having been set up by a pin-point long pass from Miele.
Nine minutes after the restart, the Hoops threatened again. Drennan teed up Simon Madden but his close-range shot was denied by a vital Darren Dennehy block.
Dennehy almost made an equally important contribution at the opposite end moments later. A corner from the right, taken by his brother Billy, was headed back across the face of the Rovers goal by Mark O’Sullivan, but Darren Dennehys’s header went straight at goalkeeper Craig Hyland. After 58 minutes, it was City’s first effort on target.
The Leesiders had penalty claims waved away by referee Paul Tuite in the 63rd minute when O’Sullivan went down after appearing to have had his shirt pulled by Conor Kenna.
Cork City almost found a winning goal with seven minutes of normal time remaining. Colin Healy’s free-kick from the left reached substitute Garry Buckley but his header crashed off the crossbar.
Rovers had a penalty claim of their own turned down in added time when Maxime Blanchard went to ground after a corner. Again, the referee took no notice of the appeals and signalled the end of the game seconds later.
The result does little for either side, with leaders Dundalk now six points clear of City at the top — with a game in hand still to come — while Rovers are 10 points adrift of the champions.
CORK CITY: Mark McNulty; John Kavanagh, Dan Murray, Darren Dennehy, Kevin O’Connor; Colin Healy, Liam Miller; Billy Dennehy (Ross Gaynor, 81), Gavan Holohan (Garry Buckley, 65), Karl Sheppard (Rob Lehane, 81); Mark O’Sullivan.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Craig Hyland; Simon Madden, Conor Kenna, Maxime Blanchard, Luke Byrne; Paddy Cregg, Keith Fahey; Gavin Brennan, Ryan Brennan (Gary McCabe, 86), Brandon Miele; Mikey Drennan (Kieran ‘Marty’ Waters, 77).
Referee: Paul Tuite.
Man-of-the-match: Keith Fahey.
Great idea,, much easier to walk out before the final whistle,,, à la last year…;)
@devils avacado: have you ever considered eating yourself, serious question?
It works very well on hill 16 except when the GAA over sell it . Keep the numbers right shouldn’t be a problem when social distancing regulations are relaxed
Has to be a safe option for this season anyway
Money money money
@The Irish Pain: more money where?
I suppose if the fans are standing up it’s harder for them to fall asleep watching a shite team .
@Ger Martin: great team at Anfield these days and its still ynwa for 2 mins at the start and 2 mins at the end and nothing in between. Yawn
@Ger Martin: Why do you devote so much energy into hating an English team that you have no geographical connection to?
@Mossy: relax lenny, don’t see anyone questioning your simpsons character/profile pic!
@Mossy: you know Ger personally do you ? It was a joke. Lighten up. It was of a better quality then the like of the ‘loserpool’ stuff on here. Nobody Monday a decent or semi decent joke.
@Brian Dunne: if you believe that then I guess you’re the type of fan who watches highlights on youtube and just reads the headlines to stay in the loop trying to be cool.
@King B: nah its common knowledge.
@Brian Dunne: oh right, well if that is truly the case then at least the fans are there for the last two minutes compared to other fair weather, submissive, prawn sandwich eating fans.
@King B: yeah yeah. Sorry, pool fans are the most sooper dooper fans in the world. Happy?
@Brian Dunne: not entirely, you forgot the part where you say man u fans are the worst.
@King B: correct,sorry. I forgot about that time united fans behaviour led to a European ban on all english teams. Oh wait….
@Brian Dunne: typical man u fan, always blowing on about history….
@King B: typical pool fan,try to rewrite history….
@Brian Dunne: now where did I suggest that?
Our future is positive, that’s the way I’m looking you can stay in the distant past if you’d like.
@King B: yeah the pool fans love forgetting certain things from the past when it suits them. Can’t be taking away from the “best fans in the world” image now can we?
@Brian Dunne: I wasn’t even born sham so how I could possibly remember it?
Let’s talk about the present and try and drag yourself out of the past.
your skummy fans singing songs about Hillsborough every chance they get?
Ever heard of Icj or the m58 firm?
Drug and people traffickers, armed robbers and they’re all hooligans involved in the ‘red army’. That’s what man u fans are up to today. Skum of the earth.
@King B: your lot were quite happy singing munich songs for years before Hillsborough. Some still sing about it. Robbing tickets off each other in athens. Heysel. Lovely lot.
@Brian Dunne: are you still talking about events in the past?
@King B: or we can talk about more recent behaviour like attacking opponents team busses. Throwing excrement in cups at old trafford. Damaging seats and toilets at old trafford. Lovely lot. Salt of the earth
@Brian Dunne: stuff was thrown at a bus, no fans no where have ever done that before. there’s books and newspaper articles to back up my point about your fans being criminals. Do you’ve any for your claims?
@King B: everything i mentioned was documented either online or in newspapers. Every club has a bad elememt following them. But liverpool fans like to put themselves on a pedestal and think they are better than everyone else when the truth is very different
@Brian Dunne: I googled searched and searched and found nothing to those claims. I’ve nothing better to be doing so it was a solid search.
No we don’t, just because you say we do doesn’t make it true.
Nice sly dig about Hillsborough there too, see skum.. We know the truth.
@King B: what sly dig about Hillsborough you absolute melt??
Have the local council nothing better to be doing at the moment!!??