SETANTA SPORTS CUP Cliftonville 0 Cork City 2: CORK CITY secured their place in the last four of the Setanta Cup with a comfortable victory over Cliftonville last night.
Alan Mathews' side were certainly given a sterner test than when last the teams met but the end result was the same thanks to two Denis Behan strikes on a night when Cork confirmed their control of Group One.
Ongoing construction work at Cliftonville's Solitude ground meant the tie was played at the northern club's temporary Celtic Park abode in west Belfast but it was the visitors who looked at home for most of the game.
As was the case when they faced Cliftonville at Turner's Cross in May, they found the Belfast side's goalkeeper in top form and, just as John Connolly had performed heroics on that occasion, so too did veteran David Wells impress this time.
The big goalkeeper could do nothing to deny Behan though as he latched on to a perfectly weighted through-ball to send a beautiful first-time attempt into the top corner for a lead they merited.
The second goal eventually arrived eight minutes from time and it was another piece of magic from Behan, this time spinning past Ciaran Donaghy to smash a superb strike high into the roof of the net.
CLIFTONVILLE: Wells, B Holland, O'Hara, Boyd, M Holland, Patterson, Catney, McMullan, C Scannell, Hamill (Sweeney 80 mins), Donaghy.
CORK CITY: Devine, Ryan, Darren Murphy (Kiely 89 mins), Gamble, Lordan, Healy, Murphy, Behan (Dineen 90 mins), Kelly, O'Connor (Cambridge 86 mins), Danny Murphy.
Referee: Alan Black(Antrim).
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