Match Report: City 3-1 UCD

Mpongo, Mpongo, Mpongo. Three goals, three points. Cork City got back to winning ways against UCD with a 3-1 triumph at Turner’s Cross thanks to a Hans Mpongo hat-trick. Barry Robson had asked for a more clinical edge from his players ahead of the game and that’s exactly what the Dutchman provided, with a collection of true striker’s finishes to seal a much-needed victory for his team. The win sees the Rebel Army leap back into first place, and with a game in hand, three points ahead of UCD who arrived on Leeside top on goal difference. 

The Teams: 

On a day of threes, Barry Robson made three changes to the team that lost in Kerry on Monday evening with Josh Fitzpatrick coming in for Ruari Keating, Greg Bolger returning from suspension in midfield in place of Niall O’Keeffe and Rory Feely slotting back into the defence after a couple of weeks out with injury to replace Charlie Lyons who was himself suspended for an accumulation of yellow cards.  

For UCD, Willie O’Connor made two adjustments to the starting XI that won 2-1 in Cobh four days ago as Killian Cailloce and Louis Dignam filled the spots of Charles Akimrintoyo and Thomas Morley. 

KICK OFF: 

City got off to a flyer when, after 45 seconds, referee Daryl Carolan pointed to the penalty spot as a result of a high boot from Michael McCullagh into the chest of Darragh Crowley just inside the box. Seani Maguire stepped up, though his spotter was saved by the feet of keeper Dara Kavanagh, only to fall to Mpongo who cooly slotted home an early opener for the Rebel Army – a welcome nerve-settler after a tumultuous week. 

UCD responded well, fashioning a number of shots from distance, though none of which troubled Conor Brann. Greg Bolger came close to doubling his team’s lead – inadvertently – when he closed down the goalkeeper’s clearance on the six-yard line, but the ball ricocheted wide of the goal to deny the home side a fortuitous second. 

The Students maintained a firm hold of possession over the next ten minutes but it was Cillian Murphy who nearly set the game alight with a magnificent solo run midway through the first half. Having won back possession in his own half, the 16-year-old slalomed past a succession of blue shirts down the right flank and cut inside to release a shot, though the attempt didn’t match the quality of the dribble and was collected comfortably by Kavanagh. 

Shortly after the half hour mark, Murphy - who scored the winner in the reverse fixture - came close again when his goalbound effort was blocked by Luca Cailloce. Collecting the loose ball, he then laid it off to Crowley but the City #17’s sweetly struck drive flashed agonisingly over the top corner at the Curragh Road end. Minutes later, it was Fitzpatrick’s turn to have a go, but his left-footed hit was gathered easily by Kavanagh. 

O’Connor’s young team acquitted themselves well in the opening 45 minutes but couldn’t turn their possession nor their pressing into any meaningful chances, restricted to a number of attempts from long range that never tested Brann. In first half stoppage time, Feely almost gave City a cushion to head in the dressing room with but his glancing header from an incisive Murphy cross drifted just wide of the far post. Robson’s men did, nevertheless, head into the break in front for the first time since late March versus Athlone. 

Second Half: 

The Rebel Army started the second half with the intensity of a team intent on reclaiming their perch at the top of the table. Opportunities for Crowley and Maguire were saved by Kavanagh, while Harry Nevin’s first-time volley from distance looked to be on target before being flicked over by the head of Niall Holohan. 

City eventually got their reward right on 60 minutes when, ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’, Hans Mpongo got his second of the night and gave his teammates some breathing space. The Corkonian Dutchman owed a lot of thanks to Harry Nevin who, having combined with Bolger, received the ball 40-odd yards from goal on the right wing and carried it all the way to the byline before sliding a low-driven cross enticingly across the goalmouth. Mpongo could do nothing else but stab home from four yards. 

It was plain sailing from there for the Rebel Army, who withstood a touch of UCD pressure to maintain their advantage. The Students’ first real chance of the game fell to substitute Michael Raggett who nodded wide from close range. City’s lead was not to be merely maintained but extended, as it turned out. On the 80^th minute it was a familiar story: Cork City Goal. Hans Mpongo Goal. The man in the #10 jersey nodded home his hat-trick, latching onto Maguire’s headed set-up from Bolger’s clipped ball into the box. That is now five goals in his last three home matches for the Dutchman, taking himself to second in the overall First Division soring charts – just one behind Maguire’s total of eight. 

There was to be no clean sheet to cap off what would have been the perfect night for Cork City. In the second minute of added time, Goodness Ogbonna had his shot parried by Brann, only to be capitalised upon by Raggett from a couple of yards out, salvaging a consolation goal for the visitors. 

The full-time whistle blew shortly after and the Rebel Army end the night back where they hoped to be – at the top of the table, three points clear with a game in hand. To follow on from Mpongo’s, City have a hat-trick of away games next up against Longford, Athlone and Treaty before returning to the Cross to face Finn Harps on May 29^th.  

Full Time: Cork City 3 UCD 1. 

Cork City (4-2-3-1): Conor Brann, Harry Nevin, Fiacre Kelleher ©, Rory Feely, Conor Drinan, Greg Bolger, Darragh Crowley, Joshua Fitzpatrick, Cillian Murphy, Hans Mpongo, Seani Maguire. 

Subs: Matthew Kiernan, Niall O’Keeffe and Matthew Murray for Feely, Fitzpatrick and Murphy (79 mins), Ruairi Keating and AJ Bridge for Seani Maguire and Greg Bolger (84 mins). 

UCD (3-4-2-1): Dara Kavanagh, Luca Cailloce, Carl Lennox, Adam Wells©, Michael McCullagh, Louis Dignam, Killian Cailloce, Niall Holohan, Luke O’Regan, Ciaran Behan, Hugh Smith 

Subs: Charles Akimrintoyo and Thomas Morley for McCullagh and K. Cailloce (60 mins), Michael Raggett and Goodness Ogbonna for Smith and Wells (’75), Colin Bolton for O’Regan (’87) 

Attendance: 2187