Kerry FC pay the penalty for defensive errors with defeat to league leaders Cork City

Kerry FC 0

Cork City 1

One imagines Kerry FC have long moved beyond the ‘moral victory’ stage of their development, and they will be rightly peeved at losing their third game on the spin, this one to Cork City at their base in Mounthawk Park. But as defeats go, losing 1-0 to the league leaders and best team in the division by a distance could still be construed as a good evening’s work for Conor McCarthy’s side.

Make no mistake, on another night the hosts might have gone down by four or five goals. City hit the woodwork and Antonio Tuta had to make a trio of smart saves; his one from Cathal O’Sullivan’s shot a definite contender for save of the week, if not the month. But you ride your luck on occasions like this, and as long as they were only one goal down, Kerry FC always had a puncher’s chance of grabbing something from the game.

That they didn’t – or couldn’t – came down to the obvious gulf in class between the teams, and it really was a case of Kerry playing a Premier Division quality team that happen to be in the wrong division.

The problem for Kerry is that the one-goal deficit came early in the game, from a calamity of errors that led to a Cork penalty in the ninth, which Evan McLaughlin confidently dispatched. Thereafter, Kerry were caught between chasing a goal and trying not to get caught a second time, but they must get some credit for not conceding again.

McCarthy made three changes to the team that started away to Bray Wanderers the previous week with Samuel Aladesanusi coming into the defence in place of Ethan Kos, and Victor Udeze and Kennedy Amechi making way in the attack for Ryan Kelliher and Daniel Okwute.

And for the briefest of moments in the very first minute it seemed like an inspired decision when Okwute spun a cross in from the right and Kelliher went to ground under a little Cork pressure, though referee Daniel Murphy was unmoved.

Cork City – resplendent in royal blue and cerise pink – quickly settled into their rhythm and were slick and pacy and confident in possession – and they had lots of it. Little by way of goal-mouth action happened for the first nine minutes and then it all fell apart for the home side.

That calamity of errors started with Andy Spain failing to clear his line on the edge of the square and Tuta coming off his goal line trying but failing to bail out his team mate. The ball dropped to Joshua Fitzpatrick whose shot towards the empty goal hit his own player, Jaden Umeh, but that wasn’t the end of it. From Umeh’s unfortunate block, Cathal O’Sullivan picked up the ball on the edge of the square and when he tried his luck the ball hit Kevin Williams’ hand and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. McLaughlin made no mistake with a clean strike down the centre as Tuta went to his right.

It felt like it could be a long night for Kerry from there, and the large and vocal Rebel Army support in the sell-out crowd of 1,150 were certainly in celebratory mood. A firework thrown on to the field from the ‘away end’ stopped play for a couple of minutes but the fireworks of goals never followed.

In the 20th minute Spain’s night got worse as the captain got caught in possession by Umeh, with Tuta having to sprint off his line again and make the save. The Cork City striker did get a second bite and tried to lob the retreating goalkeeper but while the idea was good the execution was poor.

There would be no third mistake from the Kerry captain: Spain injured himself in that passage of play and five minutes later had to leave the action, with Kos coming in to the centre of the defence.

Kerry chances were few and far between. There was 35 minutes gone when Kelliher lofted a long ball over Cork’s high line for Okwute to take down and cut back inside to give himself a sight of goal, but the striker’s shot was weak and Bradley Wade gathered the ball comfortably.

Cork were playing all the football at this stage, McLaughlin and O’Sullivan orchestrating around the middle, but while Kerry were under a lot of pressure and forced into some desperation defending, the visitors created very few clear-cut scoring chances, although two did come in the closing minutes of the half.

In the 40th minute O’Sullivan played McLaughlin through down the left side but Tuta was alert to the threat and was out quickly to smother the Cork man’s shot

On 45 minutes the Kerry goal led a charmed life again with O’Sullivan and then Fitzpatrick having swipes at the ball before Umeh thought he had scored as his dinked the ball towards the goal only for Sean O’Connell to make a goal line clearance.

Cork might have wondered how they were only 1-0 up going to the half time interval, while equally Kerry would have been kicking themselves that they were 1-0 down at the break.

The key for Kerry was not to concede early in the second half, but instead try to sit in and be solid for the first 10 or minutes minutes. And for the most part they did that, though Umeh did mange to pick out a shot in the 53rd minute that had Tuta beaten but hit the angle of the post and crossbar and came back into the grateful arms of the Kerry goalkeeper.

Three minutes late Cathal O’Sullivan’s shot from 25 yards had Tuta stretching every sinew to make a fingertip save to direct the ball on to the post and Kerry cleared the danger.

After that Cork never really troubled the hosts. Instead, Okwute took a booking for a dive on the edge of the square when he went down theatrically as Charlie Lyons hung a leg out but made no contact in the 64th minute.

Kerry’s best chance came in the 71st minute when Okwute drove to the end line and flashed a shot that Wade had to push away with the diving save, Sean McGrath – who was on the books at City a few years ago – picked up the ball and laid it back another former Cork City academy man, Kennedy Amechi, but a Cork body got in the way of his close-range shot.

The last 15 minutes was high-tempo but scrappy as Cork probed for an insurance goal but mindful of getting caught on the counter-attack, and Kerry trying to go for broke but lacking that bit of class against a superior opponent.

It ended with an expected win for Cork City, though perhaps not by the margin most would have expected. That alone is the positive Kerry have to take from the occasion ahead of Monday’s trip to Longford Town – who lost 1-0 to UCD and sit bottom of the table, five points behind Kerry.

KERRY FC: Antonio Tuta; Kevin Williams, Samuel Aladesanusi, Andrew Spain, Sean O’Connell; Daire McCarthy, Ronan Teahan; Sean McGrath, Nathan Gleeson, Ryan Kelliher, Daniel Okwute. Subs: Ethan Kos for Spain (inj, 25), Evinson Rramani for Teahan (inj, 48), Kennedy Amechi for Gleeson (62),

Booked: McCarthy (29), McGrath (53), Okwute (64)

CORK CITY: Bradley Wade; Harry Nevin, Cian Coleman, Charlie Lyons, Evan McLoughlin; Joshua Fitzpatrick, Sean Murray, Greg Bolger, Cathal O’Sullivan; Barry Coffey, Jaden Umeh. Subs: Darragh Crowley for Nevin (ht), Cian Bargary for Fitzpatrick (ht), Nathan Wood for Umeh (66), Arran Healy for Bolger (76)

Booked: Fitzpatrick (30), Bolger (38), Bargary (90)

REFEREE: Daniel Murphy