Cork City's Holohan: 'Confidence is sky high now'

Cork City midfielder Gavan Holohan feels his side are in a prime position to hunt down Dundalk as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title race reaches a crucial point.

The Leesiders closed the gap on the County Louth side down to just one point with a 4-0 victory over Bray Wanderers at Turners Cross on Monday night.

With Sean Maguire and Kevin O'Connor being called up to the Ireland U21 squad for this weekend's UEFA U21 Championship Qualifiers with Serbia and Slovenia, City's game with Dundalk, which was due to be played on Friday, has been called off.

Given that City have re found their goal scoring touch, scoring 13 goals in their last 3 games in all competitions, it may have been a good time to be facing the Lilywhites.

But as Holohan noted, when speaking to the media after the Bray victory, it is a good chance rest and re focus on the challenge at hand with a busy fixture schedule facing Cork, starting with the FAI Cup Quarter Final with Shamrock Rovers on Friday week.

"We would have liked to carry on the momentum and the confidence is obviously sky high now,” said Holohan.

“It's just one of those things, the two boys were called up to the Ireland U21 squad, the are important players for us so it's not a game we can play without them.

"We're going to get a bit of a rest now, but it's vitally important we are bang at it ready to go again for the Shamrock Rovers cup game.

"It's going to be a hectic schedule between now and the end of the season. We are going to need everyone in the squad to be ready if called upon. So we will re group now with no game this weekend, get the rest in and be ready to go for Shamrock Rovers."

Holohan is getting a run in the City side in recent weeks and he has been making an impact out on the pitch, noted by his well-taken headed goal to give Cork the lead in the victory of Bray. The Kilkenny man acknowledges he's a player who grows in confidence when given game time.

"I am that sort of a player. Once I get the momentum going, I constantly keep on improving. Hopefully I can keep it up and stay in the team and hopefully we can keep picking up results.

"To be fair, Bray are not a bad side. I think we made them look fairly average tonight. We were really on our game. Everyone was on their game, everyone was working hard and our intensity was good."

Holohan's goal was his first of this campaign for the Leesiders, with the former Hull City and Drogheda United man keen to score goals on a more regular basis. For instance, in the 2014 season with Drogheda he scored eight goals in 28 games.

"Overall I feel my goal scoring return could be better, but hopefully tonight's goal might be the start of it for me now. It was a good move, good football; Kev (O'Connor) whipped in a great ball. It was a good goal and I was glad to get it."

Holohan came to City to challenge for leagues and cups. He also states that the fans and the close knit nature of the club make it stand out from others in the league. Both he and those supporters crave a league title and they have a marvellous opportunity to achieve that goal between now and the season's end.