Caulfield not getting carried away

IT'S now seven points from nine for Cork City, as the Rebel Army saw off Bray Wanderers with a 3-1 win in Turner’s Cross on Friday night. The curtain raiser against St Patrick’s Athletic and last Sunday’s victory away to Derry had gotten the season off to an impressive start, but for the first time this season the Leesiders went into a game as favourites and had to deal with the expectation of winning.

When Extratime.ie caught up with Cork City manager John Caulfield after the match, the former striker was glad to get out of the game with three points and keep the momentum going.

“Ya we’re delighted. As I said earlier in the week, I expected this to be our most difficult match to date. There were huge expectations around Cork that Bray were going to be an easy touch. As I said, it was very easy to get up for the game against Pats and even going away to Derry, but I thought tonight it was a very very hard win.

“At times we were lucky and I don’t think we played as well as we could have. But to be fair to Bray I thought they were very good so I’m delighted to have seven out of nine.”

After a Billy Dennehy penalty on 67 minutes added to John Kavanagh’s 18^th minute opener for the Leesiders, Bray Wanderers grew into the game with many feeling that Cork City took their foot off the pedal.

“Hard to know. I didn’t think that our foot was fully on the pedal for the whole game to be honest. I thought we started quite well. We had an opportunity after maybe the first minute or two minutes and we put them under pressure from early on.

“Obviously they were slowing the game a little bit, and plus the fact that they had two good wingers that were trying to switch play and get it into them who were dangerous.

“So I suppose it was one of those nights that I just didn’t feel comfortable. Even at 2-0 I didn’t feel comfortable. I just felt we made a lot of unforced errors really. We gave the ball away a lot that we normally wouldn’t do. So, whether it was the fact that we were a little bit tired with the fourth game in two weeks?

“But to be fair to Bray they had the same situation. Certainly Bray came down to play and played very well, but at the same time in some ways it was probably a lucky three points. Look it, at the same time it’s three points and seven out of nine.”

Caulfield made two changes going into the game, John Dunleavy returning from suspension in place of Darren Murphy and John Kavanagh coming in for Liam Kearney. Kavanagh’s inclusion had the desired effect when the 20 year old got on the end of a Billy Dennehy cross to get the opener.

Kavanagh was one of four players feature that have come through the clubs under 19 team in recent years (also Garry Buckley, Brian Lenihan and Rob Lehane played), and Caulfield was delighted with his contribution and explained his inclusion.

“Absolutely. In fairness to Kavanagh, we made a slight tactical decision when we knew Elding wasn’t in. We felt that Kavanagh was probably more direct and he liked to play higher up the pitch and he certainly is a very good guy to get a few goals because he got one against Waterford in the Munster Senior Cup.

“Liam had a bit of a knock during the week and we just felt that maybe we needed a guy who was all energy for the first hour and in fairness to Kavanagh he did very well and it was a super run by Billy down the wing. It was a good move actually, to the end line. We had planned to do that quite a bit tonight actually, but we didn’t get to the end line as much we had planned. That’s credit to Bray and the way they played.”

Next up for the Rebel Army is a trip to Athlone next Friday night to face Mick Cooke’s recently promoted side and Caulfield told Extratime.ie he is not getting carried away.

 “Well I’m just delighted it’s a week away, so we can try and rest and recover and try and get our energy back. The situation with us is we must keep our feet on the ground, we must keep our attitude right, and we must work as hard as we can. When you do those things, you can be a very good side.

“If you play or go out onto the pitch and think that you’re better than you are, or you leave your brains in the dressing room, games become very difficult.

“Going to Athlone is going to be very very difficult. They’re at home, it’s an open ground. Usually it’s windy there so you have to deal with elements. But at the same time they’re after coming up, Mick Cooke is an experienced manager and they’re building a new team. It’s been a very hard start for them but you know sometimes when you’re under the cosh you come out fighting and we have to be careful because it’s a very dangerous match.”

While Caulfield hopes to have Elding back for the game next Friday, he confirmed to Extratime.ie that Michael Rafter would not be back in time. Regardless, they will travel to Lissywollen as joint league leaders, something that Caulfield is not getting too excited over.

“It doesn’t really matter. I don’t mean to be cocky, I just mean we have to keep our head down. I didn’t even ask for any other result, I’m not interested. At the moment I just want us to keep focus and to us the most important game is Athlone next Friday and we have to try and work as hard as we can to see if we can keep the pressure on.

“Later in the year you can be looking at tables. This time of the year it doesn’t mean anything.”