Cork Hospitals leave it late in hugely dramatic ending
Cork Hospitals 2 – 1 HELIO Inter
Man of the Match: Rob Hughes
It was an all important affair for both ends of the table, as Cork Hospitals pulled off a late win over league leaders HELIO Inter in Gortnaglough Community park to give Cork Hospitals a vital three points in the race for survival in the CBL Grandon’s Toyota Premier Division.
The first real chance of the game went the way of Cork Hospitals after eight minutes. The ball broke free in midfield and Thomas Digan broke free from defence to latch onto it and he slipped a lovely ball in behind the HELIO Inter defence. It reached Rob Hughes who let it run through his legs into the path of Brian Senyonyi, who tried to guide the ball past the onrushing Miguel Gomez, but the keeper was able to keep the ball out.
Senyonyi would get a chance to redeem himself ten minutes later, but he was again denied by Gomez. A long ball forward towards the box fell to the feet of Hanan Sheedy, who couldn’t quite get the ball clear and lost out to Senyonyi. He took a touch towards goal and fired a low shot from a tight angle, one which Miguel Gomez was able to get down and save.
HELIO Inter did have chances of their own in the first half, the best of which coming in the twenty-fifth minute. Sergio Castana picked up the ball in midfield and sprayed a lovely ball out to the right wing for Martin Da Silva. He took a touch and picked out Castana’s run into the box, but his one-on-one effort was denied by the leg of keeper Graham.
They were all the big chances of the first half as a very end to end game, which probably should’ve had a goal by the half time break, went into the intermission scoreless.
It was Cork Hospitals who started the slightly better of the two sides in the second half, and had a great chance to break the deadlock ten minutes in. A poor backpass from Jose Guerra allowed Brian Senyonyi to nick in and steal the ball. He looked up and saw the keeper off his line and tried to dink the ball over him, but the effort whistled narrowly over the crossbar.
In what was quite a rigid game, everything blew wide open in the seventy sixth minute. After losing the ball to Matthew Tiffany, Marcus Bento kicked the back of the Cork Hospitals man’s leg, and received a straight red card for it, leaving HELIO Inter down to ten men.
This helped Cork Hospitals immensely, as eleven minutes later they took the lead. A long direct ball forward released Brian Senyonyi over the top, who held it up and laid the ball off to the oncoming Kelvin Lynch. He immediately found the run in the right channel of Rob Hughes, who took a touch and curled the ball into the bottom left corner to give his side the lead.
Things got even better for Cork Hospitals, as they doubled their lead a minute later. They won the ball immediately off tip off before Rob Hughes received the ball around the halfway line. He looked up and went for a shot from distance, which looped up and over the keeper and nestled into the back of the net to bag his second of the game in extraordinary fashion.
Despite the concessions, HELIO Inter did get a consolation goal in the dying embers of the game. A long ball over the top wasn’t dealt with by the Cork Hospitals backline, which allowed it to run for Jose Olivares Moreno who took it down and slotted the ball home to halve the deficit.
That was all for this one though, as Cork Hospitals lifted themselves off the bottom of the table, and as for HELIO Inter it sets up a titanic two clashes against ARC Rovers in the coming week.
Cork Hospitals: K. Graham, S. Kent, T. Digan, M. Tiffany, P. Smith, D. Mullins, B. Senyonyi, R. Hughes, A. Yan, V. Naik, K. Lynch, D. Flanagan, A. Hamdy.
HELIO Inter: M. Gomez, M. Da Silva, M. Galicia, S. Castana, H. Monteiro, J. Martins, C. Williams, H. Sheedy, E. Pohlmann, A. Calderon, M. Bento, J. Guerra, J. Olivares Moreno, J. Suarez Bustamante.
