Ogbene produces the goods for City
U19 SOCCER
Daire Walsh
CABINTEELY FC……………………………………………. 0
CORK CITY………………………………………………….. 3
CHIEDOZIE OGBENE produced a star performance at Larkview last night, as Cork City U19s secured a well-deserved victory over Cabinteely FC in the SSE Airtricity National U19 League (Southern Division).
This result means that Stephen Bermingham’s charges have once again leap-frogged UCD at the summit of the table, making it a satisfactory trip to south Dublin for the Leesiders.
Ogbene was causing numerous problems for Cabinteely on the left-wing, and almost got on the end of skipper Cian Coleman’s flick-on with 24 minutes gone on the clock. Jordan O’Regan was agonisingly wide of the mark after Cabinteely’s Sean Hyland failed to deal with a high cross just shy of the half-hour mark, and the City striker was close to breaking the deadlock on two more occasions.
A persistent Cork eventually opened the scoring with two minutes remaining in the opening period, though, when Ogbene found the net via an excellent delivery from the right-flank by full-back Pierce Philips.
The visitors did receive a let-off in stoppage-time when netminder Adam Mylod was forced to turn away an Ivan Meegan effort, but nine minutes after the restart, they created serious daylight between themselves and the Metropolitan outfit.
A defensive mix-up from Cabinteely provided Ogbene with an ideal opportunity to add to his own personal tally, and with Hyland out of position, he found the opposition net with consummate ease.
The onus was now on Cabinteely to take the game to Cork, but Hyland had to be on his toes to deny Ogbene a hat-trick on the hour. The introduction of U17 duo Alec Byrne and Cian Leonard offered fresh legs to the City attack, before Cabinteely sub Jordan Andre had a shot from a tight-angle cleared off the line by the retreating Coleman.
This was an indication that the home team were not prepared to thrown in the towel, but after midfielder O’Riordan’s unstoppable 35-yard strike got the better of Hyland in second-half stoppage-time, Cork sealed all three points in considerable style.
CABINTEELY FC: Sean Hyland; Craig Morley (Adam Maher 67), Leroy Bankoie, Jamie Broderick, Andrew McGovern; Ivan Meegan (Shaun Whelan 65), Ross Broderick, Gavin Howard, Paul Fox (Craig Canty 83); Shane Heffernan; Ryan Byrne (Jordan Andre 72).
CORK CITY: Adam Mylod; Pierce Philips, Cian Coleman, Eli Khadi Harrington, Kevin Taylor; Denzil Fernandez (Darren Murphy 72), Daire O’Riordan, Patrick Crowley, Chiedozie Ogbene; Jordan O’Regan (Cian Leonard 65), Aaron Drinan (Alec Byrne 57).
Referee: Phillip Harrison (Dublin).