Cork City lose six-goal thriller to Galway United at Turner's Cross

Cork City 2 Galway United 4 

A frantic game at Turner’s Cross saw Cork City beaten by Galway United in the Women’s Premier Division on Saturday evening.

The Rebel Army opened the scoring through Zoe Finnerty and this was followed by a chaotic encounter that was decided by Aislinn Meaney in the third minute of injury time.

Ellie O’Brien got the other goal for City on her birthday, just after Ava Mullins made it 2-1 with a stunning strike from distance at the start of the second half.

These are flashpoints of a game looked at in detail since last week’s encounter between the two teams in the Avenir Sports All-Island Cup, which finished 2-0 to Galway United at Moyne Villa.

Frank Kelleher’s players were out to get revenge and they managed to go in front in the 11th minute after an Eva Mangan free-kick was punched down to Lauren Homan by Nicole Nix. The forward’s first-time shot went to Finnerty, who tapped the ball in on the goal-line at the Shed End.

The Rebel Army were determined to build on this, their issue was getting back into those positions despite Christina Dring and Homan pressing high at every opportunity.

The Tribeswoman equalised in the 26th minute with a close-range Niamh Farrelly header, and a push for a second before the break ended in vain as City held their own defensively.

Galway renewed their push at the restart and their second goal arrived in the 51st minute, with Mullins driving the ball in at the Shed End after picking the pocket of O’Brien in midfield.

Dring almost personally tried to get City back into the game, and the striker was tripped inside the box in the 57th minute as she went to turn into space. The referee pointed to the spot and O’Brien ensured parity by sending Nix the wrong way with the penalty.

The Tribeswoman responded by going to their bench and Griffin was one of those brought on in a bid to wrestle control back from City once again.

The substitute scored with one of her first touches, following a Galway corner that Doherty knocked down at the back post.

The visitors wanted more, and the chance to get a fourth fell to Isabella Beletic. Una Foyle dealt with that by pushing the ball onto the crossbar, and the resulting set piece came to nothing.

City properly went for it late on, their problem was creating something in a wall of maroon jerseys.

Galway broke in injury time and at the end of this was Meaney, who lobbed Foyle after spotting the goalkeeper off her line.

That polished things from a maroon point of view, and City are now looking at next week’s game with Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium in the Women’s Premier Division.

CITY: Una Foyle; Fiana Bradley, Zoe Finnerty, Shaunagh McCarthy, Heidi Mackin, Ellie O’Brien, Chloe O’Driscoll, Kiera Sena, Lauren Homan, Eva Mangan, Christina Dring.

Subs: Amy McCarthy for O’Brien (74); Ciara McNamara for Bradley (74), Lauren Healy for Sena (83).

GALWAY: Nicole Nix; Aoibheann Costello, Lucy Jayne Grant, Isabella Beletic, Kate Thompson, Therese Kinnevey, Ava Mullins, Heather Loomes, Eve Dossen, Emma Doherty, Niamh Farrelly.

Subs: Jodie Griffin for Loomes (60); Aislinn Meaney for Dossen (64), Lynsey McKey for Doherty (79).

Referee: Ian O’Keeffe