Home Farm 1
Cork City 5
By Denis Hurley
An early blitz saw Cork City safely through to the second round of the FAI Cup as they saw off Home Farm at Whitehall on Sunday afternoon.
Winners of the cup for the past two years, the Rebel Army’s quest for three in a row was never likely to be derailed, even with ten changes from Thursday’s Europa League loss to Rosenborg, and they were 3-0 up inside 12 minutes.
Josh O’Hanlon opened the scoring in third minute from Conor McCarthy’s good pass before Ronan Coughlan netted twice, first converting when O’Hanlon’s cross wasn’t dealt with and then he benefited from McCarthy’s unselfishness as the full-back squared to him.
With Gearóid Morrissey impressing in midfield – and twice testing Liam Woodcock from distance – City remained dominance and they added a fourth goal after the half-hour, Barry McNamee finishing well from Kieran Sadlier’s cross.
Home Farm did pull one back just after that and it was the goal of the game, Seán Goulding intercepting a loose defensive pass and lobbing Peter Cherrie from inside the City half, but just before half-time Sadlier made it 5-1 from the penalty spot after Coughlan had been fouled.
The second half was lower-intensity affair, with Coughlan having one chance for his hat-trick from a McNamee pass, good defending from Pádraig Gilsenan denying him.
Nevertheless, the visitors’ supremacy wasn’t in question and they will feature in Monday’s draw for the next round.
HOME FARM: Woodcock; O’Sullivan, McMullan, Duff, Lynch (Carroll 28); Gilsenan, Murray (O’Dwyer 52), Cahill, Doran; Goulding, Hand (McEntee 77).
CORK CITY: Cherrie; McCarthy, Bennett, Barry, Dunleavy; Phillips, Morrissey (Byrne 53); O’Hanlon, McNamee (Hurley 71), Sadlier (Murphy 63); Coughlan.
Limerick also progressed this afternoon after beating Cockhill Celtic 2 - 0.
