Caulfield disappointed after unexpected defeat

John Caulfield spoke to the assembled media tonight after his side’s 3-2 defeat to Limerick in Turners Cross. This was Cork City’s first defeat since back in April when they lost to league leaders Dundalk, also in Turners Cross.

Tonight’s result puts added pressure on Cork City ahead of their match against fourth placed Shamrock Rovers this Monday night in Tallaght as they are now seven points behind the Lilywhites in the search for the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title.

Before the game many bookmakers had Limerick priced as high as 10/1 as nobody gave them a chance coming down to Turners Cross to play a team that hadn’t lost in 12 league games but Caulfield wasn’t surprised.

“No I suppose from experience I’m not shocked as I keep saying the league will go right to the wire and there will be points dropped between now and the end. Because I keep saying it, people think there are easy games but there is not and this seeped through to the team as there were a lot of individual errors and we pressed the self destruct button on a number of occasions.

“Every time we got back into the match we conceded. It was disappointing and adding to that we have a catalogue of injuries. Dunleavy going off, Mark (O’Sullivan) and Danny (Morrissey) getting hurt in training yesterday. So all of a sudden you lose three key players.

“But look it, to be fair to Limerick they came with a game plan, they through caution to the wind after getting a few good results and they caused us problems and from our point of view we just have to knuckle down and get a result. So we can see now can we bounce back.”

Limerick burst out of the blocks something Caulfield gave credit to the league’s basement club as his side struggled to get to grips with the game but in the second half they improved, however poor finishing and defending cost them in the end.

“They started well and we did lots of individual errors. At half time I still felt we could get back into the match the second half we started well and we got the second goal and then I felt we had to get the second goal in that period but then we conceded a soft goal from a free and it was disappointing and we just have to bounce back.

“Last year our character was questioned and we have to see can we do it again this year as there is still a lot of football to be played.

“It’s a blow but you can’t feel sorry for yourself and we just have to get ready for Monday.”

Injuries are starting to catch up with the rebel army as they face into the business end of the season however there is some good news for fans as Caulfield expects to welcome some players back to the squad next week.

“Mark took a knock in training yesterday but we decided to start him and he couldn’t continue on as his knee was swelling. We have suffered a lot with injuries lately with Gavin and Danny but the good thing is that we should have Darren (Dennehy) and John (Kavanagh) back with us next week.”

During the opening half John Dunleavy and Paudie O’Connor were involved in a nasty collision and this resulted in the game being stopped for a number of minutes as the Cork City captain was being treated before going to hospital. The update after the game on his condition was as follows.

“He has concussion and he has a serious [other injury], we are unsure of it but it looks like cheekbone and teeth. It was a nasty injury. Certainly I would say he will be out for a while.”

Despite being behind for the final 25 minutes of the game Caulfield refused to send on a third substitution so when questioned does this indicate a lack of strength in the squad he answers with reference to the ever growing injury list at the club while also bemoans the lack of accuracy in front of goal.

“No because when your chasing the game you are looking for attacking players and to be fair we had Beattie, Sheppard, Flynny, Ross out on the left wing and then Marky and Danny got injured so suddenly you go from having six choices to lose two before the game. But I still think the reason we lost was that we were chasing the game. We couldn’t take our chances.”

The manager will have lots to think of ahead of the trip to Tallaght this Monday night as he hopes for his side to bounce back from an unexpected defeat, to hopefully defeat a Shamrock Rovers side that is very likely to contain ex Irish International Damien Duff.