Cork City 0 Longford Town 0: Some nights really are just like this. Cork City and Longford laboured through a disjointed, shapeless and scoreless draw at Turner's Cross last night.

The home side scarcely looked like a team sitting at the head of the table; their performance actually bordered on the woeful at times.

Indeed, but for the excellence of Joe Gamble and Alan Bennett, Cork City could have been looking at an embarrassing home defeat.

Gamble, in particular, did everything he could to raise Cork's lacklustre performance.

Unfortunately, the inability of those around him to raise their games to match his had Cork suffering.

Longford were scarcely any better and they were confined to only one real goal chance over the 90 minutes. That was a speculative effort from Danny O'Connor after five minutes that Cork goalkeeper Mick Devine capably dealt with.

For their part, Cork simply could not find the necessary creativity or penetration in the final third of the pitch, this despite having the lion's share of the possession.

Kevin Doyle's absence was painfully obvious in this context, and it is clear the Ireland under-21 international's departure has left Cork with a glaring hole in front of goal.

Cork will be more than disappointed at not only the result but also the performance.

Moreover, the result will give hope to the chasing pack as the first stutters have now manifested themselves.

CORK CITY: Devine, Horgan, Bennett, D Murray, Murphy, O'Donovan, Gamble, O'Callaghan, Woods, O'Flynn, Fenn. Subs: Kearney for Woods (24 mins), Coughlan for O'Flynn (91 mins).

LONGFORD TOWN: O'Brien, Murphy, O'Connor, Martin, Dillon, Paisley, Kirby, Fitzgerald, Keegan, Myler, Byrne.

Referee: P Tuite (Dublin).