Cork rue Morley's miscue

The failure of leading goal scorer, Pat Morley, to convert a penalty in the third minute of injury-time condemned Cork City to a disappointing defeat in the first leg of their InterToto Cup match at Turner's Cross on Saturday.

Cork had done well enough to deserve a draw in a tough and physical encounter and it looked as if they were about to achieve that when Metalurgs' centre-back Soloviev palmed away a header from Ollie Cahill that was flying into an empty net in the 93rd minute.

Soloviev was, of course, shown the red card for his intervention but then goalkeeper Spole rescued Metalurgs by diving spectacularly to his right to push Morley's penalty kick around the upright for a corner.

"I am proud of the way the team played," said Cork's manager Liam Murphy, "and the result did not do the players justice. We were at a disadvantage as Metalurgs are in the middle of their season and they are on top of their league after nine matches while we are in close-season. But my players did the National League proud."

A further heartbreak for Cork was the nature of Metalurgs' goal, which came after 70 minutes. Declan Daly, who was outstanding in a resilient Cork defence, mis-cued an attempted clearance and as the ball screwed off the side of his boot, centre-forward Katasonov pounced to beat goalkeeper Michael Devine.

Cork could also point to the failure of Georgia referee to send off Karlsons in the 28th minute as reason for dissatisfaction. Karlsons used his two hands to throw Patsy Freyne to the ground after the Corkman had tackled Solonicins fractionally late. However, after players from both sides had become embroiled briefly in a minor row, the referee merely showed yellow cards to Karlsons and Cork's John Caulfield.

CORK CITY: Devine; Carey, Coughlan, Daly, Horgan; Caulfield, Herrick, Freyne, Buckley, Cahill; Hartigan. Subs: Bennett for Freyne (64 mins); Mulligan for Caulfield (76 mins); Morley for Hartigan (85 mins).

LEIPAJAS METALURGS: Spole; Atmanavicus, Karlsons, Soloviev, Zutautas, Shelest, Solonicins, Pavlenko, Skoblyakov, Kaasonov, Dobrecovs. Subs: Kalns for Solonicins (64 mins).

Referee: M Malaguradze (Georgia).