Cork City 0 St Patrick’s Athletic 2
St Patrick’s Athletic stride into their sixth FAI Cup final this century. In a repeat of the 2021 decider, Bohemians will be waiting for them on November 12th at the Aviva Stadium, another strictly Dublin affair.
Big Joe Redmond mopped up everything Cork City threw at the St Pat’s rearguard, in his latest defensive masterclass, as goals from Mark Doyle and Conor Carty kept the unlikeliest league and cup double alive.
Six points behind Shamrock Rovers with four matches to play, the champions come to Richmond Park on October 27th.
“We will focus on the league now, we need other teams to do us a favour,” said St Pat’s manager Jon Daly.
“The full house at Turners Cross is difficult to deal with, I thought the players managed that really well. We believe in this group, we know the players we have are good players, it is just a matter of making them believe in themselves.”
Until two years ago, St Pat’s and Bohs had never met in the cup final. Now, like Dublin buses, they come in pairs, going toe to toe in the domestic football showpiece, which doubles as the last route into the 2024/25 Europa Conference League.
Their last meeting was an instant classic. Chris Forrester scored a mesmerising goal as St Pat’s won a fourth FAI Cup title on penalties. Bohs, who beat Galway United 1-0 on Saturday in the other semi-final, should guaranteed a bumper crowd for the derby clash, with at least 30,000 expected.
This semi-final defeat at Turners Cross can be described as Cork City’s season in microcosm. Plenty of energy and ideas undone by porous defending and a failure to take goal chances. The 6,335 attendance basked in the sunshine but it was the 700 day-trippers from the capital that will remember a largely forgettable game.
Carty gave them a reason to sing all the way up the M8 motorway with a late second goal. Fellow sub Jason McClelland let fly with his first touch before Carty made no mistake on the follow up. Jaded Cork defenders allowed McClelland to turn and bear down on Ollie Byrne. The goalkeeper saved the first effort but could not stop Carty’s acrobatic follow up.
St Pat’s had chances early on. Cork full back Josh Honohan was busy, clearing Kian Leavy’s ninth-minute shot off the goal-line after Thomas Lonergan’s fresh air effort fell kindly to his team-mate.
Within three minutes the visitors were ahead. Jake Mulraney appeared to overhit a ball for Ryan McLaughlin but the replacement full back, in for the suspended Sam Curtis, scampered to the end line to whip a cross into the six-yard box where Mark Doyle burst past Honohan to finish with one touch.
As Doyle celebrated near the loudest Cork fans, RTÉ television cameras captured a plastic bottle being flung at the St Pat’s players, striking Doyle on the head. After treatment from the medics, he played on.
Ruairí Keating had two chances to draw the home side level and salvage an increasingly disastrous campaign. Despite Cork’s precarious position in the relegation playoff spot, the Mayo centre forward has bagged 14 goals, including a hat-trick last month against Sligo Rovers.
In the 15th minute Keating took possession on the edge of St Pat’s box only to swerve a shot outside Dean Lyness’s far post. His second sight of goal was a free header on 31 minutes that missed the target entirely.
Redmond controlled the rest of this contest. The Pat’s skipper was impervious at centre half, appearing to be strolling over to plug one threat after another. In reality, the 23-year-old read the play like a veteran, guiding Keating away from goal on multiple occasions before a block on Tunde Owolabi eroded Cork’s confidence down the stretch.
Carty’s strike completely silenced the home crowd as the club, recently purchased by Dermot Usher, now attempt to avoid a slide back towards the First Division. Richie Holland is their third manager of the year after taking over from Liam Buckley, the club’s sporting director, who replaced Colin Healy when results started to go sour.
“It is just energy off the ball,” said Holland. “That is the platform. If you have that, the game becomes easier because you are at a tempo then. It makes you play quicker when you are in possession.
“I could write a book about what has happened this season. It has been a difficult year, but we have got five weeks to keep this club in the league. That is my job.”
CORK CITY: Byrne; Honohan, Coleman, Hakkinen, Drinan (Owolabi, 72); Worman (O’Brien-Whitmarsh, 72), Kravchuk (Coffey, 80), Bolger; Murphy (Dijksteel, 61), Bargary, Keating.
ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC: Lyness; McLaughlin (McGrath, 77), Redmond, Norman, Breslin; Forrester (Timmermans, 77), Lennon, Leavy (McClelland 82); Mulraney (Nolan, 82), Lonergan (Carty, 68), Doyle.
Referee: Robert Harvey.
