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Cork 1 : 2 Dundalk
(Aviva Stadium, Dublin, 4 November)
Author: Mark Szczuka
Photos: Stephen Gormley (Red Eye Photo Agency)
On a cool fresh afternoon down Lansdowne road over 30,000 people turned up to watch the two best teams in Ireland battle it out for the FAI Cup Final. It was Cork City v Dundalk for the 4th year in a row, Cork had won the last two finals and Dundalk were going for the domestic double.
In the first 15 minutes it was a tight affair until Dundalk got a corner in the 19th minute which Micheal Duffy crossed over for Sean Hoare to put his head on, and it went like a rocket into the top corner. The adrenaline running through Sean Hoare’s veins as he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate with the Dundalk fans in the north end of the stadium who greeted him with bright red flares.
However that same rush of blood proved deadly less than 60 seconds later when he went from hero to villain when he pushed over Cork’s Karl Sheppard in the box to concede a penalty. Kieran Sadlier stepped up and fired home for Cork from 12 yards to make it 1-1 in the blink of an eye.
Dundalk had a chance from Brian Gartland a few minutes later but it was cleared off the line at the last second by Cork’s Shane Griffan. At the start of the second half there were some harsh challenges going in from Chris Shields and Garry Buckley, as a tough midfield battle was going on with no team giving an inch.
It was not until the 73rd minute that finally Dundalk’s Sean Gannon crossed in an inviting, curling ball with McEleney putting his head on it into the opposite corner to make it 2-1 to Dundalk.
Cork had one last chance through Sheppard but his shot went narrowly wide. It was hard to take for the Cork players who have ended up runners up in both the league and cup this season.
For the Louth men of Dundalk it was cup joy and the league too. Their 2nd double in four years. They must now be rated as one of the great Irish club teams in the history of Irish football.
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[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”316″ heading=”Northern Ireland” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
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