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Cork' City's Gearoid Morrissey. Presseye/Lorcan Doherty/INPHO

Maguire penalty ensures 10-man Cork City reduce Dundalk's lead to four points

Defeat means Finn Harps have now lost eight on the bounce.

Finn Harps 0

Cork City 1

A 69TH MINUTE penalty from Sean Maguire was all that separated Cork City and Finn Harps in Ballybofey tonight in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.

Maguire sent Ciaran Gallagher the wrong way from the spot after Josh Mailey was penalised for a coming together with Garry Buckley by referee Paul Tuite.

The decision, needless to say, wasn’t the most popular on the sparsely-populated terraces at Finn Park. Tuite left the field to a chorus of boos from the home support.

The match referee had sent off Cork’s Stephen Beattie for a second bookable offence some 12 minutes from time.

The nuts and bolts of mean that Cork now trail Dundalk by four points at the top of the table, while Harps have now lost eight on the bounce — and have not scored in any of those losses.

However, there was an improvement from the home side tonight and but for that debatable penalty might have got a share of the spoils.

With their form so poor, Ollie Horgan’s side would’ve been somewhat pleased with a tepid first half.

Neither goalkeeper was overly tested, with Ciaran Gallagher in the Harps goal turning away an awkward swerver from Gearoid Morrissey and then at the other end, Adam Hanlon warmed the hands of Mark McNulty.

Towards the end of the half, Alan Bennett headed over a Stephen Dooley corner.

Nine minutes into the second half, Buckley’s shot deflected off Barry Molloy and Gallagher did well to touch over the Harps crossbar as he back-pedalled.

The closest Harps came to opening the scoring was when Ruairi Keating’s cross-cum-shot shaved the top of the Cork net seven minutes before Maguire’s goal.

Finn Harps: Ciaran Gallagher; Josh Mailey, Keith Cowan, Ethan Boyle, Ciaran Coll; Adam Hanlon (Tony McNamee 80), Michael Funston (Ryan Curran 74), Barry Molloy (Gareth Harkin 56), Sean Houston; Dave Scully, Ruairi Keating.

Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie, Dave Mulcahy, Alan Bennett, Kevin O’Connor; Greg Bolger, Gearóid Morrissey (Mark O’Sullivan 90); Karl Sheppard (Danny Morrisey 59), Gary Buckley, Stephen Dooley (Michael McSweeney 80); Sean Maguire.
Referee: Paul Tuite.

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