Bohemians 2 Cork City 1

CORK City’s search for a first win in this season’s SSE Airtricity Women’s Premier Division continues after the Leesiders suffered a narrow defeat against Bohemians at Dalymount Park on Saturday.

Courtesy of goals from Niamh Prior and Ciara Maher for their opponents, Danny Murphy’s charges were presented with an uphill task in the second half and despite substitute Kiera Sena rattling the net late on, they ultimately came up short in their 13th fixture of the campaign.

Although Nadine Seward produced an early save from Bohemians netminder and captain Rachael Kelly, City were largely second-best in possession from the very early moments of the play.

Hard-working Cork striker Fiana Bradley almost created a path to goal off a subsequent move, but the deadlock was broken at the opposite end on 12 minutes. After a cross on the right flank from multi-code exponent Sarah Rowe deflected into her path, Bohs striker Prior fired beyond the reach of City custodian Abby McCarthy.

This was an early setback for a visiting side that had just two points to their name coming into this contest and while skipper Eva Mangan was marginally off-target with a shot from distance, Bohs remained on top as the opening period wore on.

The Gypsies looked set to extend their lead on the half-hour mark when midfielder Mia Dodd poked the ball towards the target, only for McCarthy to superbly turned her shot behind for a corner.

The City number one also denied Kira Bates Crosbie and Lisa Murphy, before Ciara Maher fired home a close-range effort on 42 minutes to give the hosts a 2-0 interval advantage.

Though she departed at the break to take in some Women’s Premier Division action at a different venue, Republic of Ireland women’s national team manager Vera Pauw was an interested spectator for the first half of this encounter.

While it seemed unlikely that the game was doing to drift into a different direction after she left, City attacker Christina Dring did force a save from Kelly on 55 minutes.

Seward was also narrowly wide of the mark inside the final quarter, but McCarthy breathed a sigh of relief when Bohs substitute Aoife Robinson rattled her crossbar moments earlier.

Cork kept battling right up to the final whistle, however, and gained a hard-earned consolation goal when Sena superbly drilled a free-kick to the bottom left-hand corner on the stroke of 90 minutes.T

Even though this was their final league tie until the middle of August, City will kick-start their campaign in the inaugural All-Island Cup at home to DLR Waves next weekend.

BOHEMIANS: Rachael Kelly; Lynn Craven, Ciara Maher, Lisa Murphy, Katie Lovely; Mia Dodd, Fiona Donnelly; Sarah Rowe, Rachel Doyle (Anna Hegarty, 85), Kira Bates Crosbie; Niamh Prior (Aoife Robinson, 61).

CORK CITY: Abby McCarthy; Alix Mendez, Jesse Mendez, Ciara McNamara, Shaunagh McCarthy; Eva Mangan, Niamh Cotter (Kelly Leahy, 56); Aoibhin Donnelly (Lauren Walsh, 70), Christina Dring, Nadine Seward (Kiera Sena, 70); Fiana Bradley.

Referee: Ian O’Keeffe.