Caulfield praises 'tremendous character' of Cork players

DESPITE having contrasting starts to their seasons, the sides couldn’t be separated in Turner’s Cross on Friday night as Cork City snatched a late late equaliser against Ian Baraclough’s Sligo Rovers.

The Rebel Army were dealt a blow in the warm up as defender Darren Dennehy failed fitness test. The Tralee native was in fact ruled out by the medical staff on Thursday, but such was his desire to play he felt he could make it and wanted to prove himself before kick-off – something that is perhaps indicative of the fight in this current Cork City squad.

With one key player ruled out in the warm up, another was forced off in the opening minutes as midfielder Garry Buckley collided with Gary Rogers in the Sligo Rovers goal and had to be taken off – amid claims of a penalty. When Extratime.ie caught up with Cork City manager John Caulfield after the game, the former striker was slow to criticise the referee.

“Ya, he got a bad knock and he had to come off and go to hospital for precautionary reasons. Hopefully he’ll be back for next week.”

 “I don’t know. The general consensus was that it looked like a penalty. I don’t know. More disappointing for us was that we lost a man – a key man and serious player for us. From where we were we thought it was a stonewall [penalty] but sure look it.

“Overall there was a huge commitment from both teams tonight and to be fair to the referee, he wasn’t pulling out yellow cards or anything like that and he was letting the game go. The game was moving at pace and there was a lot of tackles going in. Honest to God stuff and to be fair to him, the referee had a good game.”

Having fielded a relatively consistent starting eleven so far this season, the changes were to tell as Cork City conceded a late goal when Kieran Djilali scored from a Joey Ndo corner for the Bit O’Red.

“It was unfortunate for us to give away the goal from the corner because we’ve defended really well all season. It was just a funny goal but I suppose when you have so many new players coming in, fellas just drifted out of position and it was a soft goal to concede.

Yet again though, up stepped Billy Dennehy to save the Leesider’s undefeated run.

“I suppose again it just showed, we’ve a young team with tremendous character. We didn’t lose the heads, we threw everything again for the last three minutes to see if we could get anything out of the game. I know it was a bit like throwing grenades in, big Dan going up for it as well.

“At the end of the day it put Sligo Rovers under huge pressure, there was a header across the back and it fell to Mark and it looked like he was going to turn and hit it but he was pushed over. Billy held his head then to stick the penalty, so overall of course we’re happy and I suppose it shows that there is character in this team. It was the first time this season we’ve one behind.”

Although speculation in the local press that former Sligo Rovers striker Anthony Elding would be fit enough to take a spot on the bench came to nothing, Caulfield revealed that a return is getting closer for his number nine.

“The medical people are telling me that he is just not 100% yet. I would hate if it was back in the old days, when you’d only sixteen players.

“To be fair to him, he’s trained three times this week and he’s done a lot of running and he’s due to be part of our full training on Monday. Fingers crossed that will happen because I’ve heard no good news the injury front for a long time. My patience is running low regarding that so I have had a meeting with the physios and the doctors.

Next up for Cork City is another home game with the visit of Drogheda United next Friday. Between now and then, as Caulfield himself said: “It’s hands on the deck to get fellas back ASAP”.

Republic of Ireland international Colin Healy was another to miss the Sligo game with Caulfield rating him as ‘probably touch and go’ for the game against Drogheda next Friday night while Caulfield was cautiously optimistic that injured starlet Danny Morrissey would be back in the coming weeks.

“Danny thankfully is running on grass on Monday. He has three of four sessions next week and if he has no reaction, the week after he is due to come back to full training. At least, hopefully in three to four weeks he might be back.”