Europe the priority for Cork boss

Cork City manager Paul Doolin has made qualifying for Europe and winning a trophy his main priorities for his first season in charge of the Leesiders.

This year will be the first since 2003 that the club have not participated in Europe and, something which clearly frustrates Doolin. He said: “When it comes around, not having European football will be a big disappointment.”

When questioned on how he has settled into life in his new role, the former Drogheda and UCD boss admits that his first month and a half at the helm haven’t all gone smoothly, stating that there have been “a few teething problems" along the way. One thing that has pleased him though, is the improvement in facilities at the club's Bishopstown training ground.

“When you’re a manager it’s easy to say you've got a club car and all that but I'd rather have a decent training ground. I think at Drogheda, the training ground was workable and the pitches were good. It seems like there was money down here last year, but according to the stories you hear, it wasn’t spent on what is the most important thing for me - the training ground.

“There has been a vast improvement but it can still get a bit better again. Tom [Coughlan, Cork City's new owner] has got people in to do certain things to the place. It’s not finished completely yet but I’m sure it will be. It looks like it’s just been left dormant and to ask professional players to come here everyday, it wouldn’t be great. There’s a bit of work being done on the pitch at the minute as well so all and all it’s moving in the right direction.

One of the main problems the 45-year-old has had thus far is finding opponents for pre-season friendlies. Cork have only had three warm-up games, all in the space of five-days, although there were plans for more which fell through.

“I’ve been trying to arrange a game but it’s been impossible. That's simply because there’s been nowhere to play and that sums it up. We had a friendly at Turners Cross the other week and I think it was the first one in five years, and we’re indebted to the Munster FA for a chance to use it. I think it’s a big stumbling block to think we are a full time club and we can only get three games. We were due to play Wexford Youths last week and we couldn’t find a place to play.”

Strangely enough, the club do have a friendly planned with English Championship side Reading. However, the only date that suited was already after the first league game, so Doolin and his squad will travel to Berkshire for the friendly after this weekend's Sligo Rovers game and play Steve Coppell's side in between their first home encounter with St Patrick's Athletic.

“Between the Sligo game and the Pat's game we’re going to Reading. Ideally, we would have liked it pre-season but we couldn’t get it. It will be good for the players, a change of environment, so hopefully we won’t pick up any injuries. There’ll be a mix and match of players playing, we’ll bring them all and play everybody so as to not over-exert anybody.”

At his unveiling as Cork boss in January, Doolin was keen to state the need for new signings and he has brought in nine new players, although only six of those are expected to be involved regularly. he sad: “Even though we’ve brought in nine players, it’s really only Dan Connor, Faz Kuduzovic, Robert Mezeckis, Stephen O’Donnell, Greg O’Halloran, and Guntar Silagalis who’ll feature.

“The rest then you would probably be looking at young players such as Paul Deasy, who is still very raw and probably still not physically strong enough. Shane Duggan played with UCD last year and Timmy Kiely is still very young. Davin O’Neill’s move from Cobh to Cork is a big difference and he wasn’t a full-time player, either. All in all, if you get no injuries, although what’s the likelihood of that, you’d certainly like to think that maybe we’d finish less than 40 points behind.”

As one of his players, Faz Kuduzovic, told extratime.ie previously, there has also been a scattering of players around the rest of the league during the off-season. However, while Doolin agrees with this, he still can’t look past last current league and FAI Cup holders Bohemians, while he also fancies the chances of Derry City.

“I still think Bohs will be strong. Derry haven’t lost a lot of players and they’ve signed one or two as well. There is, maybe, a levelling out but only time will tell. The fact you’re playing each other four times too will be a little bit monotonous too. The only thing I would be afraid of would be the quality of football,” he said.

One thing that does hold the Rebel Army in good stead is the fact that the club are still remaining in a full-time set-up. “If you are full-time then yes it is a big advantage, there’s no doubt about that. It’s probably one of the main reasons why I came down because having being full-time the past five years, I didn’t want to leave it. There’s great potential down here. People might say it’s Cork City and you shouldn’t be saying potential as it’s such a big club and while the scope to do things at the club is really big, we are coming from behind after what happened.” said Doolin, who takes charge of Cork for the first time in competitive action at the Showgrounds on Saturday night.

Cork are arguably the best supported club in the country, however, with a disillusioned fanbase after the problems of the past 12-months, Doolin is keen to win them over as soon as possible.

“There’s been examinership and a lot of instability in the club which has certainly affected the supporters and I’m sure the players have felt it as well. I think the important thing for us is to build bridges and hopefully people will say that Tom Coughlan is the man the club has been waiting forward to bring it forward.”

His chance to win over the Rebel Army starts on Saturday.