Dundalk hits twice to beat Cork and complete the double

City of Cork 1 Dundalk 2

Perhaps a more dramatic day than the previous three finals between these two teams; Definitely more goals in 90 minutes and a cracker Patrick McEleney in the final stages to seal another double for Dundalk.

The city of Cork can not have too many complaints. It was a valiant effort by John Caulfield's men, but even though most of them managed, it was hard to see where a winner would come from. They are entitled to wonder how things would have happened if Neil Doyle had shown Chris Shields a yellow second in the second half for a late challenge against Jimmy Keohane and that there was a very decent penalty request for Graham Cummins.

Despite all this, Dundalk won and if Michael Duffy put him on Pat Hoban instead of shooting late when City continued the game and engaged too much, the margin of victory would have been a little wider.

The best way for them to force another final to extend the extra time is that Kieran Sadlier deflects his efforts in the long run and that Gary Rogers is really good at overturning the ball and even if they continue to look for the equalization needed, this would not happen. Barry McNamee played well at the far post, but the ball did not fall as expected, and the Dundalk defense understood it well. Doyle pointed it out. enough.

The opening stages were, as always seems to be the case when these two teams meet in this match, much more disjointed, with a succession of stops preventing one or the other team to install in a real rhythm. The accepted idea would be that it benefits Cork but the Caulfield part could not claim a physical monopoly of the first exchanges here with some breakthrough attempts stopped.

Anyway, it was a frustrating first quarter of an hour with John Mountney's lost head at close range. Michael Duffy provided the center for that and Conor McCarthy's ability for injured Steven Beattie to deal with the Northman was clearly going to be a determining factor in the match. The 20-year-old was the first to secure the match by attempting to prevent his man from joining an attack that City suddenly felt stretched.

By that time, both teams had exchanged goals with Sean Hoare, at the heart of a hectic two-minute period. His goal was an eloquent example of how to put a head away from a corner, the central defender clocking his run and jumping to perfection. much better in any case than Mark McNulty who came but went away from the ball.

Almost as soon as the recovery, the defender was somehow sucked after being found in a fight with Karl Sheppard. The attacker seemed unbalanced once but there was nothing more and he did well to put himself between the ball and his marker again. It seemed to be about the magnitude of his ambition but it was enough; Hoare tried to get around it and play the ball, but he could not get in touch with anything other than the player. Kieran Sadlier converted the penalty to become the first player in 44 years to score in each round of the Cup, but that was tight. Gary Rogers was clearly agitated for guiding right, but had not been fast enough.

It was a much better game after that, even though it was not brilliant. Sheppard chased down everything that was happening to him, which was not a big deal, while Gearóid Morrissey and Garry Buckley led the way as City led the game. It worked for them in terms of their opponents' frustration and McCarthy continued to do particularly well on Duffy, but they struggled to create a lot in the last third themselves.

Brian Gartland had a free header from the line by Shane Griffin immediately after both goals, but the second half was well advanced before a new goal opportunity came up so close to goal. A mistake by Alan Bennett almost let Hoban in and Sean McLoughlin was on the spot to clear the ball when McNulty could only put a header on Robbie Benson.

McEleney's was another thing, Sean Gannon hit the midfield to silence the goaltender who managed to get his hands on the goalkeeper but could not do better than help him hit the goal.

Kenny hailed the striker as a "special talent after". This, they had shown us again, is clearly a special team.

CORK CITY: McNulty; McCarthy, Bennett, McLoughlin, Griffin; McCormack (Murphy, 85 minutes); Keohane (Cummins, 76 minutes), Buckley, Morrissey (McNamee, 68 minutes), Sadlier; Sheppard.

DUNDALK: Rogers; Gannon (Cleary, 86 minutes), Gartland, Hoare, Mbadey; Shields, Benson (Jarvis, 90 minutes); Mountney (McGrath, 58 minutes), McEleney, Duffy; Hoban.

Arbitrator: N Doyle (Dublin).