Buckley not getting carried away with impressive display

He may have featured primarily at the back last season, but Cork City’s Garry Buckley is equally adept in midfield as he proved with his goalscoring performance against St Patrick’s Athletic (and their impressive midfield) last night.

When asked after the game, the former Cork City under 19 captain was pleased with the performance but was refusing to get carried away with a point won against the defending champions.

“Pleased to an extent, because I felt that if we hadn’t lost a man we could have gone on to win the game which is disappointing, but these things happen.

“Listen, we put it up to the champions and if we play like that throughout the season than I’m pretty sure we’ll turn teams over every week.”

There has been much made of the 5,322 strong crowd that packed into Turner’s Cross and the 20 year-old added his name to the long list of people to stress the importance the crowd had to play in the game.

“I think only for them we wouldn’t be as hyped as we were [going into the game] or as passionate as we are so the crowd obviously played a huge part.”

The tough tackling midfielder entered Pádraigh Sutton’s book on 22 minutes for a foul on Greg Bolger. Extratime.ie asked Buckley whether he had to consciously change his game as he successfully negotiated the disciplinary tightrope of being booked so early on.

“Ya, well I didn’t really think of anything like that until I got told at half time. That’s kind of my game, getting stuck in and getting tight to men. Obviously it restricted my game a bit, but I didn’t really think about it much.”

Though most of his appearances in the Cork City first team have been in at centre half, manager John Caulfield sees Buckley as more of a midfielder and indicated that this is where he expects him to feature this season. When asked, Buckley admitted he does see himself as more of a midfielder, but insists he is happy to tog out wherever Caulfield sees fit.

“I think so, I like it and I like the position. But if John needs me to play wherever, I’m happy to play. I’m still young and I’m still learning the game so wherever he feels I’m comfortable with.”

Caulfield’s decision to play the former Republic of Ireland under 18 international at midfield was vindicated in the 41^st minute when Buckley’s back post header found the back of the St Pats’ net.

“To be fair to Gearóid he made a good run to the front post, and I don’t think the defender did too well. I was just there really, I have had a bit of a knack of getting there recently but I’m happy to get the goal.

“The position I was playing tonight was kind of more advanced, because we have had a few strikers out lately. Maybe when they come back I won’t be as advanced. Obviously when you’re a midfielder you need to score goals and you need to go box to box and if I am playing in midfield I always want to score goals and I would like to score more goals.”

Next up for Cork City is the visit of Limerick on Monday in the EA Sports Cup before the long trip to the Brandywell for the televised league tie with Derry City next Sunday.

“After a game, you want another one as quick as possible - especially after the first game of the season. Look we’ll just approach every game the same. We’re not going to think of Derry, we’re going to think of Limerick for the weekend and hopefully we’ll get a win and advance in the cup.”