Cork City 2

Treaty United 3

ON THEIR FIRST-EVER visit to Turner’s Cross, Treaty United claimed three huge points in their bid to secure promotion from the SSE Airtricity League First Division as they defeated their Munster rivals Cork City in a five-goal thriller on Friday night.

A brace of penalties from Kieran Hanlon and a late finish from Joe Collins was enough to keep Treaty joint-second in the table while City, who netted through Beineón O’Brien-Whitmarsh and Cian Murphy, remain second from bottom after suffering their eighth loss of the campaign.

City manager Colin Healy made two changes to his side that were narrowly beaten 2-1 by league leaders Shelbourne last Friday night with Alec Byrne recovering from injury to replace Jack Baxter, who has returned to Preston North End following the end of his loan spell, while Dylan McGlade came in for Dale Holland.

Despite an extremely positive opening to the game, Healy’s attacking approach went unrewarded as the Leesiders failed to get the goal that their performance in the first quarter of an hour deserved.

McGlade sent a powerful strike inches past the far top right corner, Gearóid Morrissey blasted over from long range, Darragh Crowley headed wide of the near post from a corner and Steven Beattie fizzed an effort just past the left upright all inside 15 minutes.

The 200 hundred or so home fans in attendance must have thought it was typical of how their season has been going so far that they soon saw their team fall behind to a dubious penalty.

Centre-back Jonas Hakkinen was adjudged to have blocked Kieran Hanlon’s half volley with his hand inside the box, affording the United forward the opportunity to coolly roll his spot-kick right down the middle.

But unlike a number of their other displays this season, City showed plenty of character and shortly after Darragh Crowley’s header from another superb corner from McGlade was sensationally turned wide by the outstretched Shane Cusack, they levelled the scores.

And it came from the resulting set-piece midway through the first half. This time though it was Cian Coleman getting on the end of McGlade’s delivery and Beineón O’Brien-Whitmarsh showed his predatory instincts by firing the ball home on the turn.

Treaty boss Tommy Barrett made three alterations from his side that began their 1-0 defeat to Galway last time out with the aforementioned Shane Cusack replacing the former City keeper Tadhg Ryan in goal while Kieran Hanlon (also already mentioned) and Sean Geurins came in for Joe Collins and Jack Lynch.

They enjoyed their best spell of possession towards the end of the 45 but that’s also when they fell behind as a mistake amongst the defence was pounced upon by Cian Murphy, and he expertly planted the loose ball into the bottom left corner.

But in terms of game time, they only trailed for a couple of minutes as they restored parity moments after the interval as they were awarded another penalty following another City handball in the box.

This time there was no doubting the referee’s decision and there was little question over whether Hanlon could again find the net from the spot as he emphatically slotted the ball into the same corner as Murphy had found not long before.

Alec Byrne ought to have restored City’s lead on 50 but he could only blaze over from a great position after being teed up by O’Brien-Whitmarsh’s clever layoff before McGlade blazed the youngster’s backheel into the side netting past the hour mark.

They paid the ultimate price for squandering those chances as with just over 15 minutes remaining they fell behind when substitute Joe Collins’ hopeful shot from long range deflected past McNulty, who probably should have kept it out.

City battled until the end and they had two strong appeals for penalties waved away late on despite O’Brien-Whitmarsh twice going down from challenges by Cusack.

CORK CITY: Mark McNulty; Gordon Walker (Uniss Kargbo 86), Cian Coleman, Jonas Hakkinen, Steven Beattie; Darragh Crowley (Jack Walsh 74), Gearóid Morrissey, Alec Byrne, Dylan McGlade; Beineón O’Brien-Whitmarsh, Cian Murphy (Jamie Wynne 90).

TREATY UNITED: Shane Cusack; Charlie Fleming, Sean Guerins, Anthony O’Donnell, Marc Ludden; Edward McCarthy, Callum McNamara (Mark Walsh 92), Clyde O’Connell, Matt Keane (William Armshaw 64); Matthew McKevitt, Kieran Hanlon (Joe Collins 64).

Referee: Eoghan O’Shea.

*****

Elsewhere tonight in the First Division, Bray were 2-1 winners over Cobh Ramblers, Galway United beat UCD on the road 2-0, Shelbourne edged past Cabinteely 1-0 thanks to an injury-time winner, and a thriller between Wexford Youths and Athlone Town finished 4-4.