Cork City ... 3 Monaghan United ... 0 Cork City, the 4 to 1 favourites to lift the glamour trophy this season, eased into the quarter-finals of the Carlsberg FAI Cup with a victory over Monaghan United in Cork last night.
Liam Murphy's side scored twice in the second half to underline their superiority against first division opposition as this third round replay became no more than a formality for the home side.
A crowd of over 3,500 paid gate receipts of €18,750 to see the action as goals from Greg O'Halloran, John O'Flynn and a solo effort from Billy Woods settled this replay.
Cork, who were unchanged from Sunday's 1-1 draw at Century Homes Park, took just 13 minutes to get into their stride.
Sunday's goal hero Greg O'Halloran, whose 60th-minute equaliser forced last night's replay, opened the scoring after 13 minutes with an almost identical goal.
This time he met Billy Woods' free-kick to direct a header over goalkeeper Paul Flood and the ball dropped into the far corner of the net.
Midway through the half, O'Halloran was close to a second goal, again from a Woods free-kick, but this time his glancing header went wide.
Monaghan's centre half Mick Scully was booked for a foul on George O'Callaghan after 25 minutes and, two minutes later, Cork's Alan Carey was yellow carded after a jersey tug on Darren McKenna.
Monaghan were close to scoring themselves when midfielder John Lester forced Michael Devine into a one-handed save after 28 minutes and, just before the break, Alan King, one of two changes in Bobby Brown's side, had another chance, but he mishit in front of goal.
Cork were forced to reshuffle when they lost centre half Stephen Napier with an Achilles tendon injury five minutes before halftime.
Alan Bennett dropped back from midfield to fill the gap with Colm T O'Brien coming off the bench and into a central midfield role.
Monaghan United ended the night with just 10 men after midfielder Paul Shiels was sent off for a second yellow card after 73 minutes.
CORK CITY: Devine; Carey, Napier, Cronin, Horgan; O'Halloran, Reynolds, Bennett, Woods; O'Flynn, O'Callaghan. Subs: C O'Brien for Napier (inj 40 mins), Warren for O'Callaghan (85 mins).
MONAGHAN UNITED: Flood; Mahady, Scully, Shevlin, McDonnell; J Lester, Byrne, Shiels, McKenna; Field, King. Smyth, Hysa, Parsons, G Lester, Doyle. Subs: Parsons for King (75 mins), Doyle for Mahady (76 mins), Smyth for Field (83 mins).
Referee: H Whoriskey (Dublin).
