Second-half Saints rally sinks Cork

Second half goals from Alex Murphy and Jake Mulraney ensured that St Patrick's Athletic put a difficult week behind them by coming from behind to beat Cork City 3-2 at Turner’s Cross.

Those two goals cancelled out Tunde Owolabi and Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh’s efforts that looked set to give the Rebel Army their first win under interim boss Liam Buckley, who was announced as the club’s new Sporting Director this week on the same day that Colin Healy resigned as manager.

It took St Pats just six minutes to find the back of the net, with Conor Carty finishing neatly after a low cross from Anthony Breslin that went to the forward on the penalty spot.

City hit back almost straight away, and Owolabi went down inside the area at the end of this move. Referee Eoghan O’Shea had no interest in awarding a penalty, but the fans in the Shed End did not mind. The next time that the striker got a touch in a similar position it was to knee in the equaliser from an Ethon Varian cross.

The Saints retaliated and Mulraney hit the cross bar within seconds of the restart. The loose ball was picked up by Chris Forrester and he picked out Mark Doyle. Jimmy Corcoran got there just as the striker took a touch and the ball went out for a corner that came to nothing.

In the 20th minute, John-Alan McGrath cleared the ball to O’Brien Whitmarsh and he powered a header into the bottom right corner from the edge of the box.

City would have got a third goal in the 22nd minute if not for Ruairi Keating narrowly missing a Matt Healy cross. St Pats had a similar chance in a similar position at the other end of the pitch and Carty sent a cross from Mulraney into the side netting.

That was is a snapshot of a game that was played at a furious tempo, with both teams