League of Ireland round-up: Cork maintain winning start

Drogheda United 1 Cork City 4

Cork’s 100% start to the season continued as John Caulfield’s side recorded a facile win away to ten-man Drogheda United on Friday night.

Three set piece goals punctuated the first-half, two for Cork and one for Drogheda. After early sustained pressure Sean Maguire was on the end of a Kevin O’Connor corner to power a header home on seven minutes.

At the other end Drogheda drew level as Mark McNulty made a diving save to concede a corner, from which Ciaran McGuigan’s goal bound shot was flicked past the Cork keeper by Stephen Elliot. His first goal for the Boynesiders.

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Ecstasy soon turned to agony for the hosts as Richie Purdy was harshly shown a straight red for a tackle on Stephen Beattie on 20 minutes.

With half-time looming Cork won another corner. Beattie’s in-swinger was met by Gearoid Morrissey and he turned the ball in at the front post.

Cork further extended their lead on 50 minutes when Stephen McGuiness punched an O’Connor corner straight to Karl Sheppard who struck a beautiful half-volley into an empty net.

Connor Ellis compounded the Boynesiders misery as he added a fourth deep into injury time, a turn and shot inside the Drogs box doing the damage.

Dundalk 1-0 Limerick

Patrick McEleney’s wonder goal was enough to secure Dundalk a hard fought win against newly promoted Limerick at Oriel Park.

McEleney opened his account for the season with a sublime free-kick against Sligo six nights earlier but he topped that with an even better finish here in the 32nd minute.

The Limerick defence would have felt comfortable when he cut in from the right but the 24-year-old unleashed a stunning left-footed effort that had Freddy Hall grasping for thin air in the Blues goal.

The hosts had an early chance inside the opening two minutes but Robbie Benson headed wide from a good position.

The ball zipped around the new artificial surface, making for a lively start, and Stephen Kenny - the Limerick winger - almost beat Gabriel Sava with a dipping drive that just cleared the crossbar.

The high tempo start continued and Paddy Barrett’s beautiful reverse pass found McEleney who drove towards goal but his effort was well blocked by Robbie Williams.

Michael Duffy saw a drive deflected just wide of the upright on the half hour mark as Dundalk showed signs of making the breakthrough.

And they did that two minutes later when McEleney brought the house down with his sensational strike.

He came close to a second in the 37th minute when he curled another left-footed effort at goal but this time his free kick went wide of the mark.

The second half opened in similar fashion to the first with McEleney and Kilduff almost combining to devastating effect.

At the other end, Dean Clarke tried to catch Sava out at the near post with a clever attempt from the left but the ‘keeper dealt with it well.

Benson almost made it 2-0 when he burst forward only to see his guided left-footed effort drift agonisingly wide of Hall’s post from 20 yards.

Limerick remained very much in the game but they struggled to make any real clear cut openings.

Rodrigo Tosi was given room to meet a cross from substitute Ian Turner but the Brazilian couldn’t place his header either side of Sava.

The home supporters became anxious as the game drifted towards the final 10 minutes but Dundalk saw it out to extend their winning start to three games.

Shamrock Rovers 0 Derry City 1

Ryan McBride played the captain’s role by heading Derry City’s winner against Shamrock Rovers in a Premier Division tie in which the Candystripes ended with 10 men at Tallaght.

City earned a deserved second successive victory of the campaign thanks to McBride’s 67th-minute close-range effort on a night Stephen Bradley’s side lost for the second time in three games.

Similar to last week’s win over Bohemians, Rovers started sluggishly and were lucky to avoid slipping behind inside the opening 30 seconds.

Harry Monaghan’s pass from deep exposed the home defence, allowing Barry McNamee to drift into the centre but he spurned the golden chance by firing straight at Tomer Chencinski.

Derry’s game-plan to contain the aerial threat of lone frontman Sean Body was working a treat, leaving Rovers restricted to long-range efforts from Ronan Finn and David McAllister which failed to threaten Ger Doherty.

The veteran stopper was equally comfortable in dealing with a free-kick from a dangerous position 20 yards out but which Brandon Miele couldn’t apply much accuracy on.

If Rovers were given a let-off at the start of the half, they were even luckier on the stroke of the half-time whistle as Monaghan ghosted into the box to connect with Nicky Low’s left-wing cross only for the unmarked winger to glance his header from eight yards wide.

The Candystripes resumed their foothold after the restart, outfoxing their hosts again from a well-worked corner to almost force the breakthrough. Ronan Curtis peeled off his marker to be afforded yards of space 10 yards out from Low’s delivery but he scuffed his shot and the opportunity was wasted.

After being fortunate not be penalised for a Chencinski gathering a back-pass from Daniel Devine, Rovers had no escape when Derry took the lead on 67 minutes.

Aaron McEneff, rather than Low, took the corner from the right which swung outwards for McBride to tower high and head towards his goal. While his effort struck his teammate Nathan Boyle, the centre-back was first to follow-up and smash his low drive into the bottom left corner.

Any tactical plans manager Kenny Shiels may have had about pushing for a second goal were jettisoned three minutes after he lost Lukas Schubert to a needless red card. The Austrian, booked in the first half for a late challenge on Ryan Connolly, opted to boot the ball away behind the endline. His punishment for time-wasting was another yellow card dished out by Graham Kelly.

Facing a depleted Derry might have been the cue for Rovers to launch a full-on assault for an equaliser but they struggled for invention and didn’t rattle the composed figure of Doherty. Only once in the final 20 minutes did Rovers find some space inside the opposition box and that were unable to capitalise.

With seven minutes left, Simon Madden raided down the right but unlike the victory a week earlier, his cross was misdirected badly off-target by the head of Darren Meenan.

Sligo Rovers 1 St Patrick’s Athletic 1

Sligo Rovers and St Patrick’s Athletic both earned their first point of the season after an entertaining duel at the Showgrounds.

Kieran Sadlier’s first-half free-kick opened the scoring, before defender Michael Barker fired home a second half equaliser for the visitors.

Sadlier smashed the ball low into the bottom corner on 34 minutes after Patrick Cregg had been booked for a bad challenge on John Russell.

It was a deserved lead for the home side, but they would have been behind at that stage only for Michael Leahy’s goal-line clearance.

The centre-back got back to hook Graham Kelly’s effort away from an empty goal, after goalkeeper Shaun Patton was unable to deal with an initial cross into the area on 19 minutes.

Pat’s started the second half with more directness, and were almost level just two minutes in, as Jonathan Lunney’s shot from the edge of the box crashed off the crossbar.

The home side lost Regan Donelon to injury soon after, and St Pat’s put the pressure on, with Tobi Adebayo-Rowling and Patton making last-ditch blocks to deny firstly Billy Dennehy, and then Ian Bermingham.

But the leveller came on 75 minutes, with full-back Barker proving the unlikely provider.

Finn Harps 1 Galway United 1

Former Northern Ireland International Paddy McCourt was instrumental in helping Finn Harps to pick up their first point of the season against a Galway United side who also got their first points of the season on the board in an entertaining game at Finn Park.

McCourt, who was named in the starting line up for the first time this season - he had come on as a substitute in Harps’ two previous games - stood out from early on.

He was at the centre of many of the Harps attacking forays and was also called upon to take a number of frees and a corner. However, he was taken off on the hour shortly after getting treatment for an injury.

Harps took the lead on 28 minutes when McCourt played a great pass through for Sean Houston to latch onto and he fired past Conor Winn from just inside the box.

Shortly afterwards, Galway struck the bar through Devaney and when the rebound fell for Gavan Holohan his shot was saved by Ciaran Gallagher.

Galway were back on level terms less than 90 seconds after the break as the outstanding Devaney outwitted Ethan Boyle before dispatching the ball past Ciaran Gallagher.

Galway dominated for long spells of the second half and were unlucky not to take the lead when Ronan Murray’s 64th minute drive smacked off the upright.

Packie Mailey nearly grabbed a winner for Harps with a late header that was saved by Winn.

Bohemians 3 Bray Wanderers 2

Dinny Corcoran scored twice as Bohemians came from 2-0 down to get their first points of the season in a five-goal thriller at Dalymount Park.

Bohemians dominated the first half with Keith Ward central to their attacking threat.

The skilful winger brought a terrific save from Peter Cherrie with a drive from distance on 12 minutes before cracking a 43rd minute free kick off the Bray keeper’s bar two minutes before the interval.

For all their first half dominance, Bohemians were clinically punished in conceding two goals inside as many minutes early in the second half.

Bray snatched their lead on 48 minutes. Gary McCabe’s corner wasn’t cleared and John Sullivan tapped home at the back post.

Two minutes later a defensive blunder by Gypsies’ skipper Derek Pender presented the ball to Dylan Connolly who raced in to shoot home.

Bohemians hit back on 53 minutes when Corcoran calmly slotted to the net after Jamie Doyle played him in on goal.

Relatively quiet up to then, Bray’s Anto Flood came alive on 65 minutes to see his shot on the turn come back off Shane Supple’s crossbar.

It was end to end and Bohemians were level on 70 minutes. Corcoran threaded the ball through for the run of Ward in from the left and he drilled the ball to the net through the legs of Cherrie for a fine finish.

Corcoran then won it on 79 minutes. Doyle again provided the assist for his strike partner and Corcoran did the rest slotting the ball to the corner of the net past Cherrie.