For the second year running Cork City’s season began in the FAI Super Cup where they took on St. Pat’s in the first semi-final, played at Turner’s Cross. And it was the visitors, who had a lot more preparation for the new season behind them, who went through to the final on a scoreline of 2-0. City also lost out in the third place play-off at the Cross when FAI Cup holders Bray Wanderers won 2-1, Brian Barry-Murphy grabbing the Leesiders goal before he joined Preston North End later in the summer.
There was a return to Leeside for former City player Brian Carey when his Wrexham side visited the Cross as part of their pre-season tour of Ireland. John Caulfield’s first-half goal gave City a 1-0 win. Swansea City returned to Cork again this year, and again defeated the home side, this time by three goals to one with Colin O’Brien getting on the scoresheet for City. A week before City’s UEFA Cup match in Gothenburg Glasgow Celtic’s U21 team played at the Cross (their youth team beat City’s Youths 3-2 earlier in the day) and won 1-0.
For the third year running City fans sampled European football this time in the UEFA Cup, with IFK Goteborg providing the opposition. The first leg was in Sweden and City’s lack of competitive matches showed as they went down 3-0. The return leg was a different matter with Pat Morley scoring in a 1-0 to give the Cork fans another memorable European night at Turner’s Cross.
Two days after that match in Sweden City’s domestic campaign began with a 2-1 win over Finn Harps in Balleybofey. That was followed by a disappointing loss to Sligo at the Cross before a 4-1 hammering of Galway in Terryland. In between there was League Cup disappointment with MSL side Rockmount knocking City out in the First Round when they won 5-4 on penalties.
Back in the league City continued picking up the points, with Morley spearheading their challenge scoring nine goals in the first series of games. The second series of games began well for City with three wins on the trot and ten goals scored without reply but without a win in December the title challenge was beginning to fade.
On January 2nd the team got back to winning ways with a 2-0 home win over Shamrock Rovers, Anthony Buckley scoring the first goal of the millennium and bagging 365 bottles of Guinness as his reward. City only lost one league game from January on (4-0 away to Shelbourne) but the number of draws coast them greatly and with Shels seemingly unbeatable the league was slowly slipping away and it became clear that everyone else for fighting for second place.
City eventually did finish runners-up to Shels thanks in no small part to four wins from the last four games, including a 2-1 win over nearest challengers Bohemians, and qualified for the UEFA Cup for the second year running. Pat Morley finished the season as top goalscorer with 20 league goals and Dave Barry announced that he would be stepping down as manager.
The FAI Cup First Round Draw gave City a difficult away trip to Shamrock Rovers and after a 1-1 draw it was back to the Cross for a midweek replay. In one of City’s best games of the season they beat the Hoops 3-1 to go on to the second round – a home tie against Kilkenny City. Unfortunately that match came in the middle of a poor run for City and they were knocked out by the First Division outfit on a scoreline of 2-0.
Cork City began their defence of the Munster Senior Cup away to Avondale United and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners to make it through to the semi-finals. In the semi-final they were away again to St. Michael’s (Tipperary) and goals from Liam O’Brien and Pat Morley gave them a 2-0 win. That win set up a final date with local rivals Cobh Ramblers at Turner’s Cross at the end of April and City won the cup for the third year running with a 5-0 hammering of the Rams.
