Nine-man Cork qualify

Cork City had two players sent-off as both they and Cobh Ramblers booked their places in the quarter-finals of the National League Cup after a 1-1 draw in their final Group A match at St Colman's Park last night.

Dundalk join them, as do Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers, after they clinched Group D with Peter Withnell scoring a hat-trick in a convincing 5-0 defeat of Drogheda United. Antonio Izzi, scorer of four goals in their opening win over Waterford United, put Cobh in front after 25 minutes with a simple tap-in after Phil Harrington could only parry a Keith Dalton shot.

Cork levelled seven minutes into the second-half when Noel Hartigan bundled the ball over the Cobh goal line following a Gareth Cronin corner.

Cork's Mark Herrick was sent-off three minutes later for a late challenge and was followed to the touchline six minutes from time by Harrington who was red-carded for taking down Izzi outside the box.

Withnell began the rout of Drogheda at Oriel Park when Eddie van Boxtel fumbled David Crawley's 16th minute cross leaving Withnell with a close range tap-in. David Hoey provided the cross for Withnell's second with a header three minutes before half-time.

Summer signing Noel Melvin added Dundalk's third 11 minutes after the break and then had another goal disallowed four minutes later. Withnell completed his hat-trick on 65 minutes when heading home Paul Carlyle's corner.

David Ward got Dundalk's fifth on 73 minutes and Drogheda's substitute goalkeeper, Shane Boylan, saved further embarrassment by stopping a Nathan Wigg penalty five minutes from time.

Sligo Rovers gave themselves a chance of winning Group B by beating Derry City 3-1 at the Showgrounds with a hat-trick from their on-loan South African debutant striker, Falcon Rose.

Rose put Sligo ahead after just 14 seconds and added a second on 23 minutes. James Keddy pulled one back for Derry on the hour, but Rose wasn't to be denied a glorious debut and sealed Sligo's win with his hat-trick 10 minutes from the end.