TWELVE IS THE magic number this week for Cork City Football Club.
John Caulfield’s side, who are currently 12 points clear at the top of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, will aim for their 12th consecutive league win this season on Friday when they welcome Finn Harps to Turner’s Cross. The Leesiders hope it’ll be another step towards securing their first top-flight title in 12 years.
Having been bettered by Dundalk in each of the last three seasons in their bid to bring Premier Division honours to Cork for the first time since 2005, City needed to improve in order to overtake the Lilywhites, who were hailed by many observers as the greatest League of Ireland team ever on the back of last year’s unprecedented success in Europe.
Losing central defender Kenny Browne on the eve of the new season was a major blow, but the arrival of Ryan Delaney on loan from Burton Albion has kept City stubborn in defence.
Conor McCormack joined from Derry City and has been a revelation in midfield alongside Gearoid Morrissey and Garry Buckley, the local lads who have been playing the best football of their careers.
Up front, Sean Maguire was last season’s top goalscorer but the Kilkenny native, who turned 23 this week, has progressed to another level in 2017. Maguire has been supported brilliantly from the flanks by Stephen Dooley and Karl Sheppard.
After a 2-1 home win over Bray Wanderers extended City’s lead at the top of the table to 12 points last Friday night, Bray boss Harry Kenny said — even at this early stage of the season — that the league is “theirs to lose”. With 22 games still to play, that sentiment was echoed yesterday by Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane.
City’s impressive form hasn’t been restricted to the league either. In total this season they’ve won 14 games in a row, a run which began with their 3-0 President’s Cup triumph over Dundalk in February. Most recently they progressed to the EA Sports Cup semi-finals courtesy of a 2-0 victory against holders St Patrick’s Athletic.
Winning their first 11 league games has been an impressive achievement for Cork City, but they’re still several victories shy of matching the League of Ireland record for the most wins ever recorded in succession from the beginning of a top-flight season.
City’s win over Bray five days ago saw them equal the second-best ever start to a campaign. The Sligo Rovers side of 1936-37 also managed to start with 11 victories on the trot, as did the Shamrock Rovers team of 1965-66.
But the record — as highlighted by excellent League of Ireland historian Karl Reilly – was set in the 1923-24 season by Bohemians, who went on to win their first title in the third year of League of Ireland football. The Gypsies won their opening 15 games in an 18-game campaign.
Their run was ended by a 5-2 defeat away to Shelbourne just before Christmas in 1923, but Bohs had the last laugh, pipping Shels to the title with four points to spare.
In order to equal Bohemians’ 93-year-old record, Cork City must overcome four teams who are currently in the bottom half of the table: Finn Harps (home, 5 May), Galway United (away, 12 May), Drogheda United (home, 19 May), Sligo Rovers (away, 22 May).
If they can manage that, Shamrock Rovers will aim to prevent John Caulfield’s side from setting a new record with a 16-game winning start when they go to Turner’s Cross on 26 May.
As for finishing the job by lifting the Premier Division trophy in October, some of Shamrock Rovers’ older supporters may be in a position to advise their Cork City counterparts to be somewhat cautious. Despite their aforementioned 11-game win streak at the beginning of the 65-66 season, the Hoops failed to make it count.
In a 22-game campaign, Rovers won just four of their last 11 fixtures, which allowed Waterford to capitalise by clinching the first of six titles in eight seasons.
With John Caulfield likely to have a battle on his hands to keep Sean Maguire at the club when the transfer window opens in July, as well as the possibility of Ryan Delaney being recalled from his loan spell, there may be a few twists and turns in the title race yet.
Nevertheless, according to club captain Johnny Dunleavy, in the meantime City are focused on silverware, not statistics. When asked about the record last Friday at Turner’s Cross, he told the assembled press:
We’ll let you all talk about that. We don’t have to worry about it. Genuinely, that’s the first that I have heard of it. I mean that, honestly.
“There’s never any talk in our dressing room of records. I suppose it’s something that we can’t control. At the end of the day we can’t control the game in three games’ time. The only game we can control is the next one.
“It’s all about our performance week to week. If records follow our performances, well and good. But first and foremost it’s about the three points every Friday.”
