John Caulfield: 'It is great, this league, when it's promoted'

Full houses are becoming more common under John Caulfield than for any other City manager in the past ten years but he was delighted with the squad strength on show as his side went six points clear at the top of the table after defeating the champions Dundalk 2-1.

“We had a big game, a full house,” the City boss told reporters after the victory, which saw his side continue their flawless start to the season after six games.

“It is great, this league, when it is promoted. Six games gone, live on TV with 7,000 there

Aside from the result, the biggest thing that his side showed is their strength in depth across the full team when one considers the players they were missing from their squad today.

“The bigger picture is always when you go into a game without Bolger, Beattie and Dunleavy, all guys who are carrying knocks, the temptation is always to play them.

“The danger is that you can lose them for six to eight weeks as it is early in the season. It just shows that when you are missing players then the players that come in need to be as equally good.”

Conor McCormack played in midfield on Saturday in place of Bolger, with Jimmy Keohane going to right back. Both players were praised by their manager in the aftermath of the game.

“McCormack was fantastic and Keohane was asked yesterday would he play right-back, and maybe for the first 20 minutes he was shaky, but after that he was fantastic and excellent throughout the game.”

Questioned as to why Keohane was right back instead of McCormack who had already played there this season, Caulfield was forthright in his response.

“We had played McCormack there all week in midfield so we had to decide could we bring in young Conor McCarthy, or John Kavanagh who hasn’t played a lot this year or else Jimmy.

“He said grand as that is the type of lad he is.”