Cork City 1 - St Patrick's Athletic 2Cork City and the Supersaints put on a tremendous advertisement for the National League, when the battled hard during this top of the table clash. In front of a packed Turners' Cross a thrilling and exciting game had plenty of incidents and three goals, with the Supersaints coming out the stronger. Pat Morley had the first chance when he shot narrowly wide in only the second minute. Cork were the much stronger team in the first half with a handful of chances and a large number of corners. However, the pace of Martin Reilly was always a worry for Mooney and his defence. Declan Daly accurate cross went in behind the Pat's defence but Caulfield's effort which came off his shin clipped the top of the bar with Wood beaten. Caulfield will feel hard done by a minute later when McGuinness stepped across him in the box, he went down but McDermott waved played on. Trevor Croly, whose crosses which led to two goals for St Patrick's against Sligo, saw his in-swinging corner punched off the line by Mooney under pressure from Gilzean. From this play Cork caught St Patrick's on the counter-attack but Morley's header clipped the post while going wide of the far post. Ollie Cahill also saw an effort hit the post later-on in the half. Daly entered the action with a cracking drive from 25 yards which clipped the top of the bar with Trevor Wood at full stretch. Cork's deserved goal came shortly afterwards when Morley headed home from close range after great work by Caulfield. St Patrick's started the more positively in the second half knowing that they must up their game if they were going to get a result. Braithwaite who had not featured for St Patrick's since November looked quite at home up front with Reilly. The pace of the two strikers clearly troubled Cork who defended much deeper in the half. Great work from the influential Paul Osam led to a chance for Russell but he shot straight at Mooney from 12 yards. St Patrick's got their reward for all their pressure when Braithwaite scrambled the ball home, after 63 minutes, under pressure from two Cork defenders. St Patrick's took the lead just three minutes later with McGuinness heading home a loose ball in the six-yard box. St Patrick's stayed strong for the remainder for the half with Braithwaite coming close, but Morley could have secured a point in the dying seconds, but his close range header went over to the delight of the large crowd of travelling Supersaints.
