John Caulfield on trialist Liam Nash: 'We have not signed him yet - we are looking to see has he potential'

John Caulfield says trialist Liam Nash has a chance to earn a fuil-time contract with Cork City after the English striker scored twice in a pre-season game with Killarney Celtic.

Caulfield admitted the Gillingham striker had made an appearance as his brace and one from Brighton loanee James Tilley saw Cork to a 3-1 win at Celtic Park on Thursday night.

Lengthy debate was sparked both online and in Killarney by the appearance of Liam Ward on the Cork teamsheet.

The relatively unknown player, who managed to score twice on the night after coming on for Karl Sheppard who was suffering a knock, was later revealed to be Gillingham’s Nash.

The Southend-on-Sea natiive, who has made 12 appearances for the League One Gills. has spent the past few months on loan with Concord Rangers in National League South.

“Liam’s a lad who is in training with us for the week,” Caulfield said in an exclusive interview with extratime.ie.

“We have not signed him yet. We are looking to see has he potential, will he do well for us?  [In] the second half he did very well for us, so it was good.”

Caulfield heaped praise on Killarney Celtic after they put in a brave display against a strong City outfit containing Sheppard, Conor McCormack and Mark McNulty.

“The brilliant thing for us is that everytime we come down to Killarney, we get a fantastic reception. The facilities are brilliant.

“It was a great workout. We are in pre-season and Killarney made it really difficult, worked so hard, prevented us from scoring and their goalkeeper made a number of great saves”.



Despite beating the amateur side the Cork manager felt that there is room for improvement from his side.

“In the first half I felt we had not moved the ball quick enough.

“At half time we spoke about trying to up the pace a bit more and we were better in the second half and created more chances, but we are a work in progress.

“We have a new team, we have lost nine from last year a lot of new players have come in so we are trying to bed them in”.

Caulfield now travels from Killarney to Tralee where he will face a Kerry District League selection on Friday night and feels it is great experience for the amatuer footballers.

“These games are great for the likes of the Killarney lads and the Tralee lads to play because these are full time professionals.



“They are training twice a day. They trained this morning and [have] a match tonight. It is great for the amatuer players to play up against these guys.

“That is what it is about. You want to raise your game against teams like the Cork City lads. It was great for them and tomorrow we expect the same.”