Cork are put in their place

Soccer / Uefa Cup first round, second leg / Cork City 1 Slavia Prague 2 (Slavia won 4-1 on aggregate): The meeting between these sides 11 years ago, when Slavia ran out 6-0 winners over two legs, is said to have prompted Damien Richardson to entirely rethink his approach to coaching football.

To judge by his side's form at home and their obvious enthusiasm for his methods, this defeat was not without its upside, although after another loss to the Czechs the City manager's football philosophy may be in for a spot of fine-tuning.

This may not have been anything like the rampaging win the visitors achieved at Bishopstown in 1994, but that will have provided little solace for the locals. Slavia still left for home with their superiority beyond any doubt, and Cork must double their efforts to ensure they do not finish the season empty-handed.

The pity is that last night's visitors did not look a great side, and the suspicion will linger that had Cork coped better with the challenge of the away game they might even have sneaked through.

The task of overturning a two- goal deficit from the first leg, however, proved beyond them, and their fate last night was sealed from the 27th minute when Karel Pitak found the bottom left corner from just outside the area to leave City needing four goals without reply to progress.

The southerners performed creditably once again, but the difficulties they have experienced opening up decent teams from abroad is a measure of their limitations at this level.

A broader indication of the league's standing on the international stage is that City made their exit having won one and drawn two of six European games this season, while Shelbourne's record was one and four respectively in eight outings last year. Clearly the next target, and it's a significant one, is to start winning more regularly.

Last night's opening goal came as a bitter disappointment, both to the home side and the sell-out crowd who had braved the wind and rain at Turner's Cross in the hope of seeing them pull off a remarkable come back.

Richardson's men had few complaints, though, for while they had attacked with some ingenuity through the opening stages, they had been repeatedly opened up at the back, too, and by the time Pitak struck after neat work by Dusan Svento, they had seen two Slavia goals disallowed for offside and a close-range attempt by Tomas Hrdlicka cleared off the line by Liam Kearney.

Much as it had been in the first leg, the running of Slavia's midfielders from deep positions proved the most persistent thorn in the City defence's side, although in the second half striker Stanislav Vleck showed he could take on and beat people when the mood took him, even if his finishing took a while to get right.

Pitak's goal was a result of Slavia's ability to exploit the space between the City back four and midfield, and it left the home wide with the standard dilemma in these circumstances: push forward in search of goals or preserve pride by adopting a much cautious approach.

Richardson's men attempted to steer a middle course in what looked to be a hopeless situation.

Even that allowed the visitors significantly more room to push forward, and their second goal came after 63 minutes when Vleck was allowed to exchange passes with Lukas Jarolim on the edge of the area before hitting a shot that Devine parried, only for the striker to sidefoot the rebound home.

With City having had a goal of their own disallowed for offside moments earlier, after Fenn's final touch prompted a flag, the goal as good as confirmed the Czech side's place in the group stages of the competition.

Still, there was some consolation as the former Peterborough striker, City's most influential figure in attack early on, helped the hosts to finally get a goal themselves. In addition to providing O'Flynn with a fine chance in the opening minutes that the striker fluffed with a poor first touch, the 28-year-old had had a hand in two early penalty claims. But the referee finally bit with O'Callaghan converting from the spot after Fenn had been tugged back by Martin Zboncak.

City mounted a lively pursuit of an equaliser and O'Flynn twice forced Matus Kozacik into decent saves. Their determination to salvage a draw, which would have yielded a seeding in next season's Champions League qualifiers if they can win the title here, was admirable, but more than once their frustration spilled over at the back and but for the surprisingly easy-going attitude of the Swiss match official this year's European adventure might have ended prematurely for one or two Cork players.

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; O'Donovan, O'Halloran, O'Callaghan, Kearney; Fenn, O'Flynn. Subs: Gamble for O'Halloran (60 mins); Bruton for Fenn (67 mins); Coughlan for Kearney (77 mins).

SLAVIA PRAGUE: Kozacik; Krajcik, Suchy, Latka, Zboncak; Pitak, Jarolim, Hrdlicka, Svento; Vleck, Fort. Subs: Pesir for Fort (82 mins); Kratochvil for Vleck (90 mins); Cernoch for Hrdlicka (94 mins).

Referee: P Leuba (Switzerland).