Galway United 1
Cork City 3

A series of school-boy errors led to Galway United's downfall in Terryland Park on Friday night, as Cork City never had to reach top gear in order to gain the three points.

CLEAR . . . Galway United full-back Marc McCulloch clears his lines during Friday night's eircom League clash against Cork City. Photo: Reg Gordon.

First-half goals from John O'Flynn and the outstanding George O'Callaghan, and a third late on from Dave Mooney ensured the visitors earned their second victory of the season.

The opener arrived for the visitors in the 18th minute. Joe Gamble found space in the centre of the park and floated a ball over the United defence for O'Flynn, but the pass was slightly over cooked. Gary Rogers raced out of his goal to collect, but misjudged the trajectory and it squirmed under his dive.

O'Flynn grasped the opportunity and rolled the ball into the empty net.

The vocal Cork followers did not have too long to wait for the second goal. One minute before halftime, O'Callaghan was felled on the edge of the penalty area. He picked himself up and fired the free kick to the back of the net through a porous, poorly structured defensive wall.

With Billy Clery's halftime words ringing in their ears things looked promising for Galway after the restart.

Mark McCulloch charged up the wing and unleashed a left foot volley towards Michael Devine's top corner but the Cork keeper somehow clawed the ball over for a corner.

Despite this fine start, United failed to test Devine again, until five minutes from time.

Mark Leech flicked-on a long Rogers punt and it fell to substitute Jason Molloy. He coolly flicked the ball over Dan Murray and dinked the ball over the advancing keeper for his first United goal. United threw everything they had at Cork for the remaining few minutes and were made to pay for their gung-ho tactics. O'Flynn broke away down the left wing and squared the ball to Mooney, who made no mistake from 10 yards.

More misery was heaped on the home side when caretaker manager Clery was ordered from the dug-out by referee Tom Connolly for persistent arguing with the fourth official.

GALWAY UNITED: Rogers; Nootimer, Fitzgerald, Charles; McCulloch; Deegan, Foley, Lester, Alan Keane (Molloy, 71); Leech, Glynn (O'Flynn, 54).

Booked: McCulloch, Glynn, Keane

CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Lordan, Murray, Murphy; Gamble, Healy, O'Callaghan; O'Flynn (O'Connor, 90), Mooney, Kearney (Ryan, 13, Behan, 80).

Booked: O'Callaghan, Horgan

Referee: Tom Connolly (Dublin).

Attendance ~ 1,410

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