MATCH REPORT

Date: Sunday, September 17th, 2000
Competition: eircom League, Premier Division
Venue: Turner's Cross, Cork

Result: Cork City 0:2 Derry City
Half-time: 0-1
Scorers: Derry City: Paddy McLaughlin 13mins, Darren McCaul 92mins.
City team: Mooney; Horgan, Daly, Napier, Delaney; Freyne, Herrick, O'Brien, O'Halloran; Mulligan, Morley.
Report: TWO very different realities of life as a League of Ireland club presented themselves at Turners Cross yesterday in the meeting between Cork City and Derry City.
On the one hand we had Cork, a team with perhaps the healthiest bank balance in the League, a progressive team, a team that could afford to splash out a club record fee of £15,000 just over a fortnight ago to add to their squad.
On the other had we had Derry, a team fighting for their very survival in football. A team with potentially crippling debts, a team that may very well have to sell on some of its assets to offset those debts, a team that may well fade into oblivion unless a serious change in fortunes is experienced.
A mismatch of epic proportions surely. Not so. As is so often the case Derry, the side with most to lose, pulled out all the stops, fought with a tenacity that, quite simply, wasn’t matched by Cork as their dreadful home form extended to a third game. Cork have now gone 295 minutes without scoring a goal at Turner’s Cross, a ground that was once a fortress for the home side but is now in real danger of losing it’s reputation.
Derry, a team teetering on the brink of survival, strutted around Turners Cross, took the game to Cork, laid down the gauntlet and when the challenge wasn’t taken up settled into the role of aggressor with confident ease.
It took the visitors just 11 minutes to stamp their authority on the first half, ironically 11 minutes in which Cork promised briefly to shake off the shackles of their poor home form this season as they created the game’s opening chance with a header from Stephen Napier.
Unfortunately for the home side Napier’s effort scraped paint on the way wide and from here Derry convincingly took up the initiative as they responded emphatically to this early scare with a perfectly executed opening goal from Paddy McLaughlin.
A corner from Eddie McCallion caused consternation in the Cork area and when McLaughlin rose confidently at the far post an air of inevitability swept around the ground as the ball nestled sweetly in the back of the net.
“Of course I am happy with the result. To come to Cork and take the three points is an excellent achievement and a win like this is very important to us,” Derry manager Kevin Mahon. “This in the kind of result that may help us remain in football because it will hopefully entice people to actually come through the turnstiles at the Brandywell.
“The lads have kept their confidence over the last number of weeks and to play Cork on their home patch and come away with a 2 0 win is an excellent result and the performance told a lot because we just didn’t allow them to play,” Mahon added. Not being allowed to play was certainly one of the hurdles Cork were trying to overcome and while their first half performance left a lot to be desired they did manage to improve for the second half as they set about chasing that lead goal. Cork took to the field on the resumption with renewed determination, increased the tempo of the game and forced the pace as they sought to regain the upperhand. Unfortunately they couldn’t quite bridge the gap, but the improvement in performance for the second period did give manager Derek Mountfield slight cause for hope. “Our second half performance was the best we have played for some time. We just seem to lack belief in ourselves at the moment. We are letting ourselves down in the final third and that is costing us and is something we have to work on,” said Mountfield.
While Cork did improve after the interval they still struggled to put a finishing touch to their efforts, and when the game entered the final few seconds Derry struck again to rub salt in the wounds with a 92nd minute goal from Darren McCaul, as the reality of a team struggling to find form cut deeply into the Cork dressing room.
report: The Examiner
Referee: J Feighrey (Dublin)

Onefootball.com Report
Cork City's dismal home form continued as Derek Mountfield's side allowed crisis club Derry City to steal three points from their visit to Turner's Cross.

Cork have taken only one point from their last four games and have not scored at home since the opening day of the league campaign, despite the £15,000 purchase of Finn Harps striker James Mulligan last week.

Derry added to their woes by taking the lead after just 11 minutes on Sunday afternoon, when Paddy McLaughlin headed past Noel Mooney.

Cork failed to find the net after that and a 92nd minute goal from Darren McCaul, coming when he finished from an Eamonn Doherty cross, was the final bitter blow for the 2,000 home fans.

However, the result does mean that things are looking up for Derry on and off the field. Despite their £150,000 debt and the threat of a winding up order, City are on the way back to safety on the field, having won their last three games on the trot.

They are also more secure off the pitch as tickets for their fund-raising friendly against Celtic on October 2nd sold out within hours.