Cork City stretched their unbeaten run to six games with a routine win over a Monaghan United side struggling to compensate for the loss of centre-back Robbie Brunton after just 26 minutes at Turner's Cross yesterday.
Brunton left the referee with no option but to flash a red card when he kept a header from Cork's Derek Coughlan out of the net by punching the ball off the goal-line.
Brunton's act merely delayed the arrival of the first goal for Kelvin Flanagan who converted the resultant penalty and Monaghan were at a severe disadvantage afterwards. The pity for them was that they failed to take advantage of a bright opening when they looked the better side.
To compound Monaghan's problems they lost McKenna with an injury just before half-time and in the second half they were under severe pressure. Cork's Alan Bennett twice struck the woodwork as Cork succeeded in adding only one further goal. This came after 71 minutes when Conor O'Grady's cross from the left was fired home by Ollie Cahill from 12 yards at the second attempt.
CORK CITY (4-4-2); Devine, Carey, Daly, Coughlan, Horgan, Flanagan (Napier 57), Bennett, O'Grady (Colin O'Brien 75), Cahill, Morley (C P O'Brien 46), Mulligan.
MONAGHAN UNITED (4-4-2); Forde, White, Scully, Brunton, O'Callaghan, Meier (McCarville 51), Shiels, Murphy, Burke, McKenna (Lundy 44), Vaughan.
Referee: D McKeon (Dublin).
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