Shamrock Rovers 0-5 Cork City
Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup ¼ Final
By Jamie Moore @Tallaght Stadium
Shamrock Rovers slumped to their worst ever defeat in Tallaght Stadium on Friday night.
A Seani Maguire hat-trick and goals from Garry Buckley and Karl Sheppard earned Shamrock Rovers’ interim manager Stephen Bradley an unwanted record.
Some seats in the Dublin 24 venue emptied with 40 minutes left as Maguire scored his third and City’s fifth in the 49thminute.
The travelling fans chanted “You’re fu**ing s**t” towards their Hoop counterparts, and incredibly a section of the home fans changed the chant to “We ARE fu**ing s**t”, not a phrase ever heard before in Tallaght.
The focus will undoubtedly be on a terrible display by Shamrock Rovers, and it was bad, but John Caulfield and his team deserve a lot of the credit.
Last season’s beaten finalists started the match brilliantly and didn’t give a Rovers’ team mixed with youth and experience a chance to start the game.
The attacking partnership of Maguire and Buckley caused problems to the back three of Rovers all night with the rout beginning in just the fourth minute.
Maguire scored in both of the Ireland U21 matches last week and kept up his excellent form by rounding Barry Murphy to score after Buckley’s pass.
Rovers could have been level within a minute, Gary McCabe found Aaron Dobbs, but the young striker’s low shot was well saved by Mark McNulty.
The goal of the game came in the 12th minute, Buckley curled his brilliant shot from the edge of the box just beyond the hand of Murphy after Stephen Dooley’s ball.
Former Hoop Sheppard made it 3-0 just after the half hour mark, scoring first time from man of the match Maguire’s excellent pull-back after another devastating attack.
Stephen Bradley (above) would have emphasised to his team about getting the next goal, getting the game back to 3-1 and mounting an unlikely come-back.
It took Maguire just 47 seconds of the second half to end their feint hopes.
Sean Heaney and Rob Cornwall allowed a long ball to bounce between them and the ex West Ham striker didn’t need a second invitation to grab his second.
Some fans had barely taken their seats following their half time tea before Cork scored again.
Dooley fed the unstoppable Maguire with a clever ball and he did the rest.
The signalled the early departure of many fans but Maguire was hungry for more.
He could have added even more gloss to the score-line, or embarrassment for Rovers, but missed two good headed chances before sub Dean Clarke almost got a consolation for the Hoops.
Shamrock Rovers moved to Tallaght Stadium in 2009, their worst previous defeat was 4-0 to St. Pats in the 2013 season.
They have never lost by this badly in the FAI Cup in their history.
They are at a crossroads now, chasing third place in the league, out of Europe, now out of both clubs, and still to appoint a permanent manager, big decisions need to be made.
Cork’s chase of league leaders Dundalk continues, and if this result and performance is anything to go by, they have to be favourites to lift the FAI Cup under John Caulfield (below)
These teams meet again in the league in Turner’s Cross next Friday.
All images Copyright Inpho Photography
LISTEN to both managers and hat-trick hero Seani Maguire speaking to 98FM's Jamie Moore after the game by clicking play on the link below.
Shamrock Rovers – Barry Murphy; Sean Heaney (Killian Brennan, 60), Rob Cornwall, Dave Webster; Simon Madden, Pat Cregg, Gary McCabe, Stephen McPhail (Aaron Bolger, 70), Trevor Clarke; Sean Boyd, Aaron Dobbs (Dean Clarke, 56).
Cork City – Mark McNulty; Steven Beattie (Michael McSweeney, 61), Alan Bennett, Kenny Browne, Kevin O’Connor; Greg Bolger (Colin Healy, 53), Gearoid Morrissey; Karl Sheppard, Garry Buckley (Gavan Holohan, 53), Stephen Dooley; Seani Maguire.
Ref – Paul McLaughlin (Donegal)
