Shamrock Rovers 1-0 Cork City (AET)
Teenager James Doona was the toast of Tallaght Stadium after his dramatic 120th minute winner put Shamrock Rovers into the EA Sports Cup final.
The late, late strike broke tenacious Cork City resistance after they’d played for over 80 minutes with 10 men following captain Alan Bennett’s sending off.
With the game looking set for penalties, Doona, 19, collected fellow substitute Michael O’Connor’s flick to take a touch and rifle an angled drive to the far corner of the net.
Rovers now meet Dundalk in the decider on 16 September, at a venue to be decided.
Though somewhat slow to settle, Rovers exposed Cork down the right on 10 minutes as Dave Webster’s ball found Graham Burke whose in-swinging cross was just out of the reach of Gary Shaw.
The pace and clever footwork of Cork’s Stephen Dooley was causing Rovers problems on their right side, though it was a corner to the back post from the City winger that brought the visitors’ first chance on 18 minutes; striker Conor Ellis planting his header wide.
An open game soon saw Brandon Miele shoot wide following a corner at the other end before sloppy defending brought Rovers the first real chance of the night on 29 minutes.
Shaw bustled Bennett off the ball on the left. The big Hoops striker ran on before bringing a good stop from Mark McNulty at his right hand post.
Bennett’s problems worsened on 37 minutes when he was shown a straight red card following a clash with Webster in the Rovers area.
Burke glanced a header wide from Trevor Clarke’s left flank deliver before the Hoops midfielder’s shot from distance was comfortably taken by McNulty as Rovers added impetus to their game against the 10 men
from the resumption.
from the resumption.
Cork had McNulty to thank for a stunning save as he got a finger tip to touch Rovers’ skipper Ronan Finn’s thumping drive from distance onto a post.
And they were close again on 72 minutes following a crisp passing move.
Miele collected Burke’s pass, linked a one-two with Shaw, with the finish the only thing lacking as the shot arrowed just wide.
McNulty was there again to thwart Rovers on 89 minutes to force extra-time with a point-blank save to deny Madden with David McAllister blazing the rebound over the top.
Karl Sheppard scuffed a shot wide after Gearoid Morrissey played him in on goal as Cork relieved the pressure in extra-time.
McNulty then looked to have brought the game to penalties with a 119th minute stop from Burke before Doona’s intervention at the death.
Shamrock Rovers: Tomer Chencinski; Simon Madden, Dave Webster, Luke Byrne (Dean Carpenter 59), Trevor Clarke; Ryan Connolly, Ronan Finn, David McAllister (James Doona 95), Brandon Miele; Graham Burke; Gary Shaw (Michael O’Connor 102).
Cork City: Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie (Gearoid Morrissey 90+3), Alan Bennett, Ryan Delaney, Shane Griffin; Greg Bolger, Jimmy Keohane; Karl Sheppard (Achille Campion 102), Garry Buckley, Stephen Dooley; Conor Ellis (Conor McCarthy 42).
Referee: Neil Doyle (Dublin).
| DrawIRELAND: League Cup | ||||||||
| 12:00 | Finished | Galway | 0 - 3 | Dundalk | (0 - 1) | |||
| 15:00 | After ET | Shamrock Rovers | 1 - 0 (0 - 0) | Cork City | (0 - 0) | |||
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