Pat's hit Cork for four - January 29,
2001
Cork City 0 St. Patrick's Athletic 4
Cork boss Derek Mountfield's job is reputedly under threat after a humiliating four-goal defeat by Pat's in City's Turner's Cross stronghold.
Mountfield has spent big money on the likes of James Mulligan and Michael Devine but City fans have watched them team take a big step back from previous years. Cork now languish in eighth place, five points behind third-placed Pat's who have a game in hand.
That's three defeats out of four at Turner's Cross in the last month and he club's directors spent the second half closeted in the boardroom after watching Cork go 3-0 down by half time.
In fairness to Cork, injury robbed them of the experienced Declan Daly, Derek Coughlan, Fergal O'Donoghue, Colin O'Brien and Patsy Freyne - and the handicap was too much for them. They traded at parity for 20 minutes - but then two goals in less than two minutes undid them.
First the pacy Ger McCarthy ran through on his own to slip the ball under Devine; then Stephen McGuinness rose highest from a Martin Russell free kick - though it looked as if defender Stephen Napier may have got the last touch.
McGuinness definitely got the third in first-half injury time, again from an accurate Martin Russell free kick.
And it was Russell and McGuinness again who conjured up the fourth for Ger McCarthy in the 69th minute. Another Russell free, another McGuinness header and McCarthy was there to finish it off.
Cork had misery heaped on misery when Greg O'Halloran walked seven minutes from time for a second yellow - and it wasn't until the final minute that Saints 'keeper Seamus Kelly earned his day's pay with a good stop from Pat Morley.
Cork City: Devine, O'Halloran, O'Rourke, Napier, Horgan, Tynan, Gaughan, Herrick, Cahill, Morley, Mulligan
Subs: Cotter for Gaughan 45, Caulfield for Tynan 61
Booked: Morley, Cahill
Sent off: O'Halloran 83
St. Patrick's Athletic: S Kelly, Croly, Foley, S McGuinness, Burke, R McGuinness, Mbabazi, Griffin, Russell, L Kelly, McCarthy
Subs: Quinn for Kelly 80, Drew for Russell 83, Holt for Mbabazi 83
Goals: McCarthy 21, 69, S McGuinness 23, 45
Booked: Mbabazi
Referee: H Byrne (Dublin)