Cork City 1 Hammarby (Sweden) 1:Cork City failed to take full advantage of their early superiority and paid a heavy price in the second round, first leg Intertoto Cup tie at Turner's Cross on Saturday.
Cork exploded into action and a lead goal after just nine minutes raised hopes that it might presage a night of extravagant entertainment with a distinctly Cork flavour. It was not to be.
The principal reason why this looked so encouraging for Cork early on was the impact of former Republic of Ireland international Colin Healy. His influence was remarkable given his extraordinary ill-luck with serious injuries and then his enforced redundancy since January because of bureaucratic red tape.
The former Celtic midfielder was authoritative and assured in his every touch. When he slalomed through the Hammarby defence for 30 yards and then dug out a left foot cross from the edge of the penalty area to set up the goal, Cork looked set for great things.
The cross forced goalkeeper Benny Hellstrom to dive forward off his goal-line to deflect the ball out but this fell kindly for Roy O'Donovan and he slipped the ball into the unguarded net with a minimum of fuss.
Healy continued to impress but Hammarby grew in confidence and ambition as the game progressed. Their equalising goal had an element of luck, however, for when Louay Chanko dropped a free from halfway into a crowded goalmouth, Paulinho's headed deflection carried little force. But in the heaving, struggling mass of threshing legs the ball bobbled over the line with Healy unfortunate to make the last fruitless connection.
Hammarby were streetwise and combative and they disputed everything with the referee. Perhaps it was this argumentative approach enabled them avoid a penalty decision in the 40th minute when O'Donovan was first impeded by Suleyman Sleyman who then touched the ball with his hand as he lost the physical contest and tumbled.
O'Donovan faced the goalkeeper who turned his shot outside and although the referee then booked Sleyman he refused Cork's appeals for a penalty. It was as if he was satisfied he had given Cork the benefit of the advantage rule in the first place.
So Cork will undoubtedly face a difficult assignment in the second leg in Sweden on Saturday.
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Kelly (Lordan 79), Murray, Woods; Healy, Gamble, Farrelly (Murphy, 70 mins), Kearney; O'Donovan, O'Flynn (McSweeney, 67 mins).
HAMMARBY: Hellstrom; David Johansson, Monteiro, Sleyman, Emil Johansson; Castro-Tello (Gunnarsson, 73 mins), Eguren, Chanko, Laitenen; Paulinho (Juliusson, 85 mins), Davies (Jensen, 90 mins).
Referee: R Lajuks (Latvia).
