Cork City\u2019s 2020 season came to an end with a draw against Derry City at Turner\u2019s Cross on Monday night.<\/p>\n
While Beine\u00f3n O\u2019Brien-Whitmarsh\u2019s goal in the 59th<\/sup>\u00a0minute looked as if it might give bottom side City a third victory of what has been a disappointing and frustrating campaign, an equaliser from Oluwaseun Akintunde earned Derry a share of the spoils.<\/p>\n It had been all of 16 days since City\u2019s last game, the 2-1 defeat away to Sligo Rovers that, combined with Finn Harps\u2019 win over Bohemians, condemned the Rebel Army to relegation. Interim manager Colin Healy made three changes from that match, with goalkeeper Mark McNulty returning in place of Liam Bossin while Dylan McGlade and Cian Bargary came in in the wide attacking positions for Joseph Olowu \u2013 who has returned to Arsenal after the end of his loan spell \u2013 and Kit Elliott.<\/p>\n Having played a 3-5-2 at Sligo, City were in a 4-3-3 here as McGlade and Bargary flanked O\u2019Brien-Whitmarsh and the hosts battled well in the first half.<\/p>\n While McGlade had the first effort, shooting over after loose Derry defensive play, the Candystripes \u2013 who went into the night with a slim chance of being dragged into the relegation play-off \u2013 settled well and Adam Hammill had a shot which wasn\u2019t far away after City failed to properly clear the danger from a free kick.<\/p>\n On 14 minutes, City\u2019s Jake O\u2019Brien had the ball in the net from a Kevin O\u2019Connor free kick but the flag was up for offside. Bargary was very lively on the left flank and he went close two minutes later with a long-range shot but Derry were more than capable of creating danger at the other end. When nice footwork from Walter Figueira gave Joe Thomson a sight of goal, good defending was needed from City midfielder Alec Byrne at the expense of a corner while Kevin O\u2019Connor had to do likewise on the half-hour when Ciar\u00e1n Coll\u2019s good pass from deep found striker Oluwaseun Akintunde in the area.<\/p>\n From that corner, City failed to fully clear the danger and midfielder Conor Clifford had a low shot from distance which hit the post and bounced clear.<\/p>\n On the stroke of half-time, Coll had a half-chance for Derry as he met Hammill\u2019s free kick but he wasn\u2019t able to keep his header on target.<\/p>\n Derry\u2019s Figueira had the first opportunity of the second half as his 47th<\/sup>-minute shot was deflected wide but, perhaps because of word coming through from elsewhere that Shelbourne had dropped into the play-off spot, it was typical end-of-season fare.<\/p>\n That was until the 59th<\/sup>\u00a0minute when City pressed as Derry looked to come out of defence and Gear\u00f3\u00edd Morrissey\u2019s interception on the edge of the area fell to O\u2019Brien-Whitmarsh, who kept his composure to slot home his first league goal for the club.<\/p>\n There were opportunities for the lead to be doubled as O\u2019Brien found Bargary on the left with a free kick and the winger\u2019s curling shot whistled just past the post. Then, after former City captain Conor McCormack had drawn a save from McNulty, Bargary had an even better chance when Derry\u2019s goalkeeper Peter Cherrie \u2013 another former City man \u2013 sent a clearance straight to him but he blazed his shot high and wide.<\/p>\n Derry responded positively, though. First, Hammill shot over with a free kick after he himself had been fouled 25 yards out and then the equaliser arrived in the 75th<\/sup>\u00a0minute, with Hammill again involved. He had been intending to pick up Figueira at the back post with his cross from the left but, when Ronan Hurley tried to cut it out with a header, the ball fell perfectly for Akintunde to attack it and nod home from close range.<\/p>\n In the immediate aftermath, City had half a penalty shout as Bargary went down under an Eoin Toal challenge but the Derry defender was adjudged to have got the ball.<\/p>\n With four minutes left, Derry almost won it. Again, Hammill was the instigator as a good move built down the left and he pulled back for McCormack at the near post but his cushioned effort went narrowly wide.<\/p>\n Referee:<\/strong> Se\u00e1n Grant (Wexford).<\/p>\n [event_performance 104325]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cork City\u2019s 2020 season came to an end with a draw against Derry City at Turner\u2019s Cross on Monday night. While Beine\u00f3n O\u2019Brien-Whitmarsh\u2019s goal in the 59th\u00a0minute looked as if it might give bottom side City a third victory of what has been a disappointing and frustrating campaign, an equaliser from Oluwaseun Akintunde earned Derry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,2,5,3],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-match-reports","category-news","category-news-featured","category-news-social-feed","tag-derry-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2167,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/2167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corkcityfc-posts.speiredev.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}