Pretenders crash to earth

Cork City's unbeaten record bit the dust at Richmond Park last night and when Dave Barry and his squad assess their performance ahead of Monday's return game in the League Cup, it will be the manner in which they were beaten that will concern them far more than the termination of their early-season winning streak.

City, accustomed to being the superior side on the pitch in their games this season, were made to look a distant second best in this first game of two head-to-head encounters between the country's leading pair.

Despite the defeat Cork still top the table. With St Patrick's two goals ahead after 11 minutes, they needed just one more goal to rob Cork of that distinction, too. The home side created more than enough chances to extend their lead in a match that they dominated from its hectic opening exchanges to its frantic conclusion.

In every department they looked better, but it was in midfield - where the home side's ploy of using an additional man paid off in spades - that the tussle was really won and lost.

While Trevor Molloy, who scored both goals, and Stephen McGuinness might have had worthy claims on the man of the match title another night, last night they were also-rans. Paul Osam, an erratic performer for most of his days at Richmond Park, was head and shoulders above team-mates with more polished reputations.

Manager Liam Buckley was quick to point to Osam's performance as one of the key factors, but added: "There are a lot of winners in there (his side's dressing room) and it's difficult to single just one of them out.

"The fact is that we've always encouraged the players here to pass the ball and tonight it came right for us. Cork are a good side and they made it hard for us, but from where I was sitting on the bench it looked like we thoroughly deserved the win and I'm delighted with it."

Delighted as he may have been, Buckley will have been disappointed that the margin was only two goals at the end. After Molloy opened the scoring with something of a trademark goal - the closerange shot at the far post - after a Martin Russell corner, and finished a fine move by Osam and Ian Gilzean with a neat little chip for his second, there was plenty of scope for more.

Cork had their chances too. Patsy Freyne's wildly deflected shot and Mark Herrick's glancing header, both in the first half, were amongst the best of them, but it was the home team's movement and passing that consistently led to the better openings in and around the penalty area.

Even aside from the early goals, a Cork defence which came to Dublin with a proud record of just two conceded in their first eight games repeatedly looked vulnerable. For a start the visitors were peddling a particularly poor version of what they clearly like to think is an offside trap.

Molloy, for one, didn't seem to be able to spot the trap aspect of it. On the one occasion that the 21-year-old did find himself on the wrong side of City's back four, the fault lay not with him but with Gilzean, who had delayed his pass needlessly as his partner was repeatedly forced to check his run.

Otherwise it was left to Mooney to prevent the striker completing his hat-trick and three times over the course of the first period alone, the goalkeeper had to intervene on the edge of his box in order to contain the danger.

In the centre of midfield, City were struggling to hold their own throughout, but out wide, where Keith Doyle and Trevor Croly were getting forward whenever possible, the Cork side had even greater problems. Osam, playing just behind Eddie Gormley and Martin Russell in the centre, was running the distribution operation for St Patrick's.

City's full backs Brian Barry-Murphy and Declan Daly were having to do their share of scurrying back in pursuit.

Afterwards Dave Barry conceded that the decision to stick with their own game plan rather than counter St Patrick's had not worked out.

"We knew," he said, "that they would play with three in the centre and we could have done something about it. But, to be honest, the 4-4-2 has been going so well for us that we decided to stick with it and there's no point in complaining now. We'll go back home, enjoy the jazz, and be ready for them when they come down on Monday."

That game - a semi-final which will be decided one way or the other on the day - will now carry a certain psychological importance for Barry's side, too.

"There's no better place," he remarked last night, "to lose the unbeaten record than here because they're a very good side and it's a tough place to come."

St Patrick's: Wood; McGuinness, Lynch, Hawkins; Croly, Gormley, Osam, Russell, Doyle; Molloy, Gilzean. Subs: Reilly for Gilzean (89).

Cork City: Mooney; Daly, Coughlan, Cronin, Barry Murphy; O'Halloran, Herrick, Freyne, Cahill; Dobbs, Kabia. Subs: Caulfield for Kabia (55 mins), Flanagan for Dobbs (77 mins).

Referee: H Byrne (Dublin).