Cork City 2 Waterford United 0:The remarkable Roy O'Donovan brought his season's harvest of goals to 20 from all competitions with Cork City's opening goal at Turner's Cross last night.
O'Donovan's strike after 37 minutes was all that separated the teams until the 89th minute when substitute Leon McSweeney struck his first goal for the club with a powerful left-foot shot from 15 yards that gave Cork a win they just about deserved.
It was a tough and demanding contest as Cork took advantage of a 25th minute let-off to work themselves into a position of control for the 15 minutes before half-time. Their dominance produced a superb goal in the 37th minute.
The goal was created by a swift bout of passing with Gareth Farrelly finding John O'Flynn in a central position on the edge of the penalty area. His through ball sent Liam Kearney in to draw goalkeeper Dean Delaney and when he squared the ball, O'Donovan was left with a tap-in.
The big talking point was the penalty incident in the 25th minute. Daryl Kavanagh's cross from the left was controlled by Vinny Sullivan and his shot on the turn struck Dan Murray on the hand as he closed to tackle. Sullivan wasted the penalty, shooting over off the crossbar.
O'Donovan was close to adding to his tally with a lightning sprint and strike in the 52nd minute. He took Murray's pass, sprinted hard to a central position and struck a left-foot shot against the butt of an upright.
O'Donovan was in the picture again in a less flattering light in the 66th minute. Goalkeeper Dean Delaney dived on a ball that appeared to be going wide as O'Donovan threatened to get to it. The Cork striker stretched in an attempt to reach the ball and contact was made with Delaney.
Delaney jumped to his feet to push O'Donovan to the ground and the referee was satisfied to issue both with yellow cards.
Waterford pushed hard for an equaliser but they were undone as McSweeney caught them for pace in the 89th minute.
Goalkeeper Michael Devine's long clearance was knocked on by Denis Behan and McSweeney won himself space as he sprinted to reach the ball first and power his shot home from the left hand side of the penalty area.
CORK CITY:Devine; Horgan, Kelly, Murray, Woods; Lordan, Healy, Farrelly (McSweeney, 72 mins), Kearney; O'Donovan (Behan, 77 mins), O'Flynn (O'Brien, 81 mins).
WATERFORD UNITED:Delaney; Flynn, Breen, Browne, Hedderman; McCarthy, Scully (Brosnan, mins 75), Warren, Kavanagh; Bermingham (Delaney, 66 mins), Sullivan.
Referee: H Whoriskey (Dublin).