LEAGUE OF IRELAND PREMIER DIVISION Finn Harps 0 Cork City 1:CORK CITY closed the gap on leaders St Patrick's Athletic and second-placed Bohemians as they recorded a fortunate win at Finn Park last night.
Relegation-threatened Finn Harps were left fuming after the visitors got what proved to be the winner thanks to a highly questionable penalty just before the interval.
Dave Mooney made no mistake with the spot-kick as City moved to within two points of the leaders.
City went into this clash on the back of a great run that had seen them take 16 points from six league outings.
And with Mooney having bagged a brace of goals in each of his last four games, Harps knew they could be in for a torrid time.
Having leaked five goals in their last match against St Patrick's Athletic, Harps manager Paul Hegarty was desperate to shore up his defence. However, he had to make do without the central defensive partnership of Declan Boyle and Stuart Malcolm, who were both missing through injury.
Indeed, Hegarty made five changes and welcomed back Jonathan Minnock for only his third game of the season, while Davy Byrne, signed from Athlone during the week, made his debut for the Donegal club.
Although John O'Flynn shot tamely at home goalkeeper James Gallagher in the second minute, it was the home side who had the better of things early on.
On seven minutes Michael Funston skipped down the right flank and whipped in a cross for Neil McCafferty, but he blazed wide of the target.
Harps then went close again on 18 minutes when City net-minder Michael Devine failed to hold a corner and he was somewhat relieved to see an attempted lob from McCafferty land on the roof of the net.
But it was City who scored against the run of play with a controversial penalty in the 33rd minute.
Liam Kearney went down in the box as he attempted to round Funston and referee Ritchie Winters pointed to the spot. Mooney duly obliged by slotting in his 14th goal of the season.
With tempers showing signs of boiling over, City could have doubled their tally on 39 minutes when O'Flynn capitalised on a mistake by Marc Mukendi to race through on goal, but his shot was saved.
The second half took time to come to life, with Cork having to wait until the hour mark before they conjured up another chance when Danny Murphy fired narrowly wide from 25 yards.
Finn Harps remain just above the drop zone, and have still to take a point off any side in the top half of the table.
FINN HARPS:Gallagher, Funston, Holmes, Minnock, Mukendi, Byrne, McCafferty, McGowan, Parkhouse, Gethins, Tyrell. Subs: Ramsey for Byrne (31 mins), Brolly for Tyrell (77 mins), Breen for McCafferty (88 mins).
CORK CITY:Devine, Horgan, Murray, Gamble, O'Flynn, Murphy, Sullivan, Healy, Kearney, Murphy, Mooney. Subs: Behan for O'Flynn (67 mins).
Referee:R Winters (Dublin).
