Bohemians - 2 Cork City - 3 Cork City moved up the table as Bohemians slipped to another defeat at Dalymount Park last night.
The home side were reduced to 10 men when Robbie Doyle received his second yellow of the night and in a late flourish Kevin Hunt converted two late penalties to put a better gloss on the scoreline.
To be fair, Bohemians never resorted to long-ball tactics but with the front pairing of Glen Crowe and Tony Grant not troubling the Cork defence, it was a frustrating night for the home fans.
Cork, for their part, will have been happy to have come away with the points although the defending for the two goals was less then satisfactory.
Bohemians began in a confident manner with Hunt whipping over an early cross for Crowe. But despite being in plenty of space the striker was unable to direct his header on target.
A good spell of pressure from Cork then saw George O'Callaghan force a good save out of Shay Kelly from a dipping free from the edge of the box.
Kelly's save produced the first of what became three consecutive corners with O'Callaghan again denied, this time by the watchful Simon Webb who headed off the line at the far post.
Bohs did eventually break out of their half but in one of their rare attacks spurned a good opportunity. Following good link-up play between Stephen Caffrey and Crowe the later played Grant in at the edge of the box. But the former Shamrock Rovers marksman rushed his effort.
Bohemians were then to suffer a double blow when they lost centre-half Colin Hawkins to injury on half time. And then five minutes before the interval, Cork struck for their opener. A long ball played out of defence put Kevin Doyle in the clear and with Kelly committing himself perhaps a little too early, Doyle sidestepped his challenge to convert into an empty net.
Bohemians had a glorious chance to equalise when Caffrey played a low ball in across the box and as the Cork defence hesitated Hunt pounced but his shot was well wide of the target.
That was the turning point as Cork stretched their lead on 64 minutes through O'Callaghan, and then with 12 minutes to go Neil Fenn curled the ball into the top left-hand corner after poor Bohemians defending.
And then to make matters worse, Doyle received his marching orders in the 80th minute.
The only bright moments for Bohs came in the final five minutes when Hunt tapped home two penalties.
BOHEMIANS: Kelly; Lynch, Hawkins (Harkin, 35 mins), McNally (Keddy, 73 mins), Webb, Ryan, Caffrey, Hunt, Ward, Crowe, Grant (Doyle, 53 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; Lordan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy, Woods, CT O'Brien, O'Callaghan, Nwankwo, Doyle, Fenn.
Referee: P Whelan (Dublin)
