Shamrock Rovers 0 Cork City 2: With a trip to Shelbourne to come this Friday and Derry City due at Turner's Cross the week after, Cork City have a bit of work to do yet before they can call this league their own.
Their fourth win of the season at Dalymount Park, though, and their most convincing in a month nudged them that bit closer to a first league title in a dozen years.
For Rovers, who now desperately need to beat Waterford at the weekend, there was little cause for complaint about the result itself. A home side almost unrecognisable from the one that lost to City in April - just three of the same players started - battled hard but was beaten by the better team whose goals came courtesy of Roy O'Donovan and Joe Gamble.
The two second-half sendings off that will leave them without Kieran Foley and Marc Kenny for Friday's game were another thing, though. Both looked harsh and even the alleged victim in the second incident, Colin O'Brien, protested on behalf of Kenny as an apparently inadvertent collision prompted a straight red card.
Prior to the game Damien Richardson had expressed some sympathy for his old club's plight but the City boss will have been relieved to have seen his side win in a much more controlled fashion than they did against Bohemians here last week.
Swirling winds and sodden ground tended to even things a little, though, and with the benefit of the breeze in the opening half, Rovers created almost as many chances as their opponents, the best of them coming from Kenny's shot from almost 30 metres which forced a decent save from Michael Devine who was then fortunate when the loose ball hopped very kindly for him off the post.
At the other end George O'Callaghan initially went closest to finding the net for City although on the one occasion he did beat Barry Murphy Brian Shelley popped up to make the required block.
In midfield City looked the stronger although Lee Roche had his moments down the right flank while Trevor Molloy might have capitalised on any one of a string of low through balls if only he could have beaten Cork's offside trap.
Having toiled but without reward in the first half, Neale Fenn and Roy O'Donovan showed their hosts how it should be done four minutes before the break. The former Tottenham striker Fenn split the Rovers defence with a perfectly judged pass after turning 35 yards out and his young team-mate got enough power on his shot to frustrate the two defenders scampering back in the hope of making another goal-line clearance.
The game was all but over from the moment the ball crept home but the pair were then instrumental in doubling the lead nine minutes into the second period with O'Donovan benefiting from a Foley error and Fenn producing a wonderful dummy to leave Gamble with all the time in the world to fire past the helpless Barry Roche.
Foley's sending off followed shortly afterwards for a challenge on O'Donovan after which it seemed City might take the opportunity to build on their two-goal advantage over title rivals Derry. Though they cruised through what remained of the game, however, City produced barely another chance of serious note. Rovers' Mark Rutherford would have stolen a goal that would have provided no consolation at all against the run of play at the other end had it not been for the most fortuitous of deflections off Dan Murray.
SHAMROCK ROVERS: Murphy; Shelley, McDonagh (Ryan, 79 mins), Foley, Doyle; Roche, Tracey (Sweetman, 65 mins), Kenny, Rutherford; Molloy, Sheridan (O'Connor, 61 mins).
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; Gamble, O'Callaghan, O'Brien, Woods; O'Donovan, Fenn (Behan, 87 mins).
Referee: H Whoriskey (Meath).
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