Cork City 2 Bray Wanderers 1
Goals early and late did the trick as Cork City achieved their 11th straight win at Turner’s Cross last night.
The victory means that John Caulfield's side have now beaten every other team in the Premier Division, but the hosts were uncertain of the three points until John Dunleavy's late header made it 2-0. While Derek Foran did pull one back for Bray in injury time, City had done enough.
The opener came in the 10th minute, after Bray defender Foran was deemed to be holding City's Ryan Delaney as Stephen Dooley sent a corner over. Maguire slotted home the penalty for his ninth league goal of the season. The corner had come after Karl Sheppard's shot hit the post and rebounded out for a corner off goalkeeper Peter Cherrie but, try as City might, they couldn't find a second.
Maguire had two chances to double the lead while Sheppard and Dooley also went close, but each time Cherrie was on hand to keep the ball out and it remained 1-0 at half-time.
City lacked the same attacking fluency in the second period, but the defending was resolute as Bray were kept at bay. Soon after the restart, John Sullivan's effort was stopped on the line by the irrepressible Conor McCormack and Dylan Connolly blazed another effort wide.
The hosts’ best chance of the second period was a Sheppard shot from a narrow angle, kept out by Cherrie. However, the keeper couldn’t keep out Dunleavy’s header from O’Connor’s corner on 88 minutes and City took the points.
CORK CITY: McNulty; Beattie, Dunleavy, Delaney, O'Connor; McCormack, Morrissey, Sheppard, Bolger (Keohane 59), Dooley (Griffin 73); Maguire (Ellis 90).
BRAY WANDERERS: Cherrie; Buckley, Clancy, Foran, Marks; Brennan (Flood 77), Salmon (Moore 73), Sullivan, Connolly; Greene, McCabe (Aherne 85).
Referee: P McLaughlin (Monaghan).
