Sligo Rovers – Cork City

Recap

Cork City regained the top spot of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division after a 2-0 victory over Sligo Rovers tonight at the Showgrounds.

City boss John Caulfield made three changes, in what was the Leesiders’ third game in eight days. Alan Bennett returned in place of Conor McCarthy, Conor McCormack came in for Barry McNamee and Danny Kane was handed a start at left-back ahead of Shane Griffin.

The home side found themselves on the back-foot almost immediately after kick-off. Kieran Sadlier opened the scoring inside the first minute after latching onto Garry Buckley’s pass and firing the ball past Mitchell Beeney.

City came close to doubling their lead after ten minutes. Sadlier this time the provider from a set-piece, but Sean McLoughlin could only head the ball off target. There was a lengthy break in play shortly after when Kyle Callan-McFadden and Graham Cummins clashed heads. The Sligo man was forced of with injury while Cummins carried on.

The Bit O’ Red came back into the game just before the break. They had the ball in the next just before half time when David Cawley squared for Ali Roy, however the former ran the ball out of play just before he pulled the ball back for a potential Sligo equaliser.

Sligo dominated for large spells in the second half with the possession stats largely in their favour. Liam Kerrigan came close to scoring but Mark McNulty tipped his effort onto the crossbar to the relief of the travelling support.

The killer blow came ten minutes from the end and culled any chance of a comeback.

Graham Cummins continued his excellent goal-scoring form with another header from Steven Beattie’s cross from the right.

Now a point clear at the top, next up for City is a home game against Bohemians before a two-week break kicks in.