Keating penalty hauls City past Treaty

By Donncha Noonan | Photo: Kevin Barry Dorney

Having won the last three games, City hit the road on Monday to head to Limerick, as they faced Treaty in a rescheduled fixture that was postponed a month prior due to a waterlogged pitch. A visibly leggy City needed a Ruairi Keating penalty to take the lead, and held a late fightback off to secure all three points at a hot and sunny Market’s Field.

Barry Robson was forced into one change from the side that beat Athlone on Friday. Defender Rory Feely dropped out due to suspension, being replaced by Niall O’Keeffe.

Tommy Barrett made four changes to his team that fell late at home to Cobh. Richkov Boevi, Ronan Manning, Jason Oyenuga and Fionn Doherty all came out of the side, with Mark Byrne, Ben Feeney, Darren Nwankwo and Kyle Foley all stepping in.

The first chance of the game went the way of the visitors after thirteen minutes. A long ball forward from City was headed away by the Treaty defence onto the head of Niall O’Keeffe. He looped a header over the left channel to Hans Mpongo, who fired a right footed volley narrowly over the crossbar.

City’s good start paid off as they took the lead in the twenty-seventh minute. Hans Mpongo received the ball out wide and barrelled past Darren Nwankwo into the box, with the defender pulling Mpongo down as he went by. Ruairi Keating stepped up to the spot and buried his penalty into the bottom left corner to give his side an early advantage.

Treaty hit back straight away and were denied an equaliser a minute later. Eric Yoro received the ball out on the right hand side and fired a ball into the feet of Mark Byrne. He flicked the ball over the City defence first time for Cian Curtis, who tried to hook the ball over the onrushing Conor Brann, but the City keeper did excellently to tip the ball away from goal for a corner.

That was the last real opportunity of the half as City were just that small bit better than the hosts, which earned them their one goal advantage.

Treaty started the second half hot and almost grabbed an extraordinary equaliser after just a minute. Eric Yoro switched the ball to the left hand side where it was hooked towards the back post to Ben Feeney. His shot was deflected up towards Mark Byrne, who sent a bicycle kick towards goal from close range, but Conor Brann reacted brilliantly to claw the effort away.

City’s keeper was called into action again in the sixty-first minute. Eric Yoro led a Treaty counter attack and played a lovely ball through for Mark Byrne. He bore down on goal and tried to guide the ball past Conor Brann, but he was able to get his left arm onto the ball to divert it away.

City did have chances of their own and came close to putting the game to bed in the eighty-second minute. Conor Drinan nicked the ball in midfield and slotted it wide for Hans Mpongo. He rushed towards the box before opening up and curling a shot towards the far right corner, but Jack Brady got down in time to palm the effort away. 

Treaty continued their quest for a leveller and almost found it four minutes later. A long ball was knocked down by Brian Cunningham to Ronan Manning, who lifted the ball over the City defence for Cian Curtis to chase. He got the ball and cut inside Harry Nevin before lifting the ball over Conor Brann, but also over the crossbar.

The host had their final chance of the game three minutes into injury time. Nwankwo got the ball down the right wing and came back to give it to Robbie Lynch. He drove towards the box before cutting inside to curl a shot towards the top left corner, but his effort just evaded the back of the net and went wide.

That would spell the end of this encounter as despite Treaty’s efforts in the second half, City walked away with all three points and a clean sheet to go with it. City were quite strong in the first half, giving the hosts’ defence a lot to deal with whilst also keeping them to minimal amounts of chances. It changed a bit in the second half for whatever reason. Treaty were far more intense with their attacks and gave the City backline far more issues to deal with, but they were issues that the Leesiders handled right until the end, with Treaty probably deserving a point overall. I think the run of away games probably took its toll on City a bit in that second half, but Barry Robson will just be happy that they were able to get the win over the line.

 

 

 

My Man of the Match goes to Conor Brann. On the eve of his first training session with the Ireland squad, Brann proved his ability and why Heimir Halgrimmson deemed him worthy of a squad selection. He dealt really well with Treaty’s second half onslaught, denying at least three or four big chances from hitting the back of the net, something City will miss from him whilst he's away.

City finally return home on Friday, as they host Finn Harps at the Cross. As for Treaty, they’ll travel to the midlands to take on Longford Town.