Cork City resumed leadership of the Premier Division with a comfortable win over Galway United in the match that produced an individual record for centre forward Pat Morley.

Morley claimed Cork's second goal in the eight minute to bring his career total in the League of Ireland to 163, the highest on record by a Cork player.

Morley now stands one ahead of the previous record-holder Donal Leahy who played with Cork Celtic in the 1950s and 60s. And he is third in the all-time list, led by Turlough O'Connor on 178.

A delighted Morley said afterwards: "It is a fantastic feeling and I was all the more delighted when the first man into the dressing room to congratulate me was Donal Leahy. To have somebody of his reputation say such nice things was very flattering." Morley's goal was fit to grace any occasion and came after an opening spell of outstanding football by Cork. A build-up on the right wing between John Caulfield and Colin O'Brien led to a superb cross by O'Brien that was headed home spectacularly by the diving Morley. Manager Dave Barry said: "It is a great encouragement to everybody to have Pat Morley in such sharp form. We have always been able to create chances and now we know we have somebody who is capable of taking them on a regular basis and you can see the confidence flowing through the team."

Galway were ill equipped to cope with the power and pace of Cork's opening play and they struggled particularly on the right where Ollie Cahill was always a thorn in their side.

He set up the first goal with a driving run past full back, Luther Watson, in the third minute that forced Luther into tripping him. Kelvin Flanagan fired home the penalty.

Cork should have had more goals before the break and were unlucky when Stephen Napier headed into the net in the 43rd minute only to see the referee rule out a goal because of an infringement in the crowded goalmouth.

Galway succeeded in curbing Cork to some extent in the second half when their marking was tighter and they injected a previously missing degree of physical commitment into their play. This had an undesirable result when Darragh Sheridan was sent off when guilty of a second yellow card offence five minutes from full time and Cork ended the game triumphantly as Johnny Glynn scored their third in the 90th minute.

CORK CITY: Harrington; Napier, Daly, Hill, Cronin, C O'Brien, Flanagan, Freyne, Cahill, Morley, Caulfield. Subs: L O'Brien for Flanagan 46 mins, Glynn for Caulfield 57 mins, Buckley for Freyne 82 mins.

GALWAY UNITED: Hickey; Watson, Foley, Morgan, Quirke, Malee, Dolan, SHeridan, King, O'Malley, Killeen. Subs: Keogh for King, Keane for Watson 46 mins, Thornton for Keogh 77 mins.

Referee: J Stacey (Athlone).