Honours even as Shelbourne deny Cork City much-needed victory

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Premier Division: Cork City 1 Shelbourne 1
Cork City's wait for a first clean sheet of the season goes on as they squandered another lead against Shelbourne at Turner's Cross on Friday night.
Seani Maguire's superb second-half header looked to have earned the relegation battlers a crucial three points but substitute Ali Coote's stunner snatched a draw for the champions.
Ahead of this, his first home game in charge of the club, Ger Nash stressed the importance of Cork City establishing an identity if they are to one day return to their glory days.
Bringing former City midfielder and Leeside native David Meyler in as his assistant manager was a key part of 'Operation Corkness', although he won't take his place in the dugout until after the upcoming mid-season break.
But it's the performances on the pitch and the subsequent results that follow that will matter most to the City faithful.
And the 2,821 in attendance will surely have been pleased with what they saw in the first half as City penned Damien Duff's men into their own half for the majority of the opening 45 minutes, plus four added on.
All that was missing, crucially, was at least one goal to give them the advantage they thoroughly deserved.
The returning Seani Maguire – the only change Nash made from their 2-1 loss away to Galway United in his first outing – was a constant threat and he had a penalty appeal waved away just shy of the quarter of an hour mark before he later poked Djenairo Daniels' neat layoff straight at the keeper.
The link up between the two forwards will give Nash plenty of encouragement, as will Milan Mbeng's marauding display at right-wing back, as will how dangerous they looked from set-pieces with Freddie Anderson going close on couple of occasions before Charlie Lyons stung the palms of Lorcan Healy with a powerful near post header from Evan McLaughlin's free kick.
It was McLaughlin who went closest to scoring moments earlier though, but he was unfortunate to see his curling, dipping strike from distance clip the top of the crossbar.
John O'Sullivan would finally muster an effort of note for Shelbourne before the interval but his thunderous drive inside the penalty area was nodded clear by Lyons.
Even if Shels had finally shown signs of life in those closing stages, Duff would still show how unhappy he was with their first half efforts as he made three substitutions during the break.
The changes seemed to make a difference, but only for all of 12 minutes as City would take the lead during Shelbourne's best spell in the game.
Mbeng again showcased his quality, charging down the right before whipping a precise cross towards Seani Maguire, who rolled back the years by rising high above his marker to nod the ball powerfully beyond Healy.
That was virtually Maguire's last involvement in the contest as City, who have squandered leads far too often so far this season, brought on the experienced holding midfielder and coach Greg Bolger, in a bid to contain their old rivals.
Shelbourne's Ali Coote scores. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho
That idea lasted all of five minutes as substitute Ali Coote snatched an equaliser on 71 minutes when his angled thunderbolt from long-range found the net via the inside of the far-left post to ensure City's long wait for that elusive first clean-sheet goes on.
The Rebel Army showed some defensive solidity late on to at least secure a point, although that nearly became three in injury time, but Rio Shipston's low hit was saved.
CORK CITY (3-5-2): Troost; Anderson, Lyons, Crowley; Mbeng, Murray (Shipston 73), O'Sullivan (Nolan 89), McLaughlin, Fitzpatrick (Djiksteel 73); Daniels, Maguire (Bolger 66).
SHELBOURNE (4-2-3-1): Healy; O'Sullivan (Norris ht), Coyle, Ledwidge, Wilson (Barrett ht); Lunney, McInroy; Chapman (Coote 65), Wood (Odubeko ht), Caffrey; Martin (Kelly 83).
Referee: Marc Lynch.