TOMMY BARRETT WAS delighted with his side’s display against Cork City last night, but the Limerick boss felt they may have left a couple of points behind them at Markets Field.
Playing against one of his former clubs, Billy Dennehy fired Limerick into a 17th-minute lead. But the defending SSE Airtricity League Premier Division champions earned a draw thanks to a penalty converted by Kieran Sadlier in the 33rd minute, which was awarded by referee Neil Doyle due to a foul on Graham Cummins by Darren Dennehy.
However, Barrett questioned the official’s decision after seeing his side respond positively to their 5-0 hammering away to Derry City on Monday. Dennehy was deemed to have shoved Cummins over as Barry McNamee sent a corner into the Limerick box.
“I think we could have won it, probably should have won it,” said Barrett. “Obviously they had balls in the box and there was a few scrambles, but on the creation of chances we probably created the better ones.
“The penalty; Darren said your man pulled him into him and fell over — they were getting decisions like that all day. They were hitting the deck. A bit cleverer than us, probably. A bit more experienced.
“We weren’t doing that. I don’t like my team doing that, to be honest. But it seems with the way the game has gone that you probably have to, to get a free-kick, so it’s maybe something we’ll have to look at.”
Barrett paid tribute to his players for the quality of their performance, which leaves Limerick in sixth place after two wins, two draws and two losses. The defeats were resounding. Prior to Monday’s trouncing in Derry, they lost 8-0 to Dundalk in their previous away game. But the Limerick boss pointed out that it’s still early days in his team’s development.
Seven of the players who started last night’s game joined the club ahead of the new season. Barrett also only took the first-team manager’s job five weeks before the campaign kicked off following the untimely departure of Neil McDonald.
Conceding 13 goals in their last two away games is a concern, but taking a point from the champions — in addition to wins over Sligo Rovers and Bray Wanderers, as well as a draw with Bohemians — is proof that the Blues have the potential to be competitive in the top flight.
“Personally I think we’re still trying to find and develop leaders in the group,” said Barrett. “The players are getting to know each other. It’s still forming. It’s still very much a new team when you look at the players we lost. That’s not an excuse, it’s just the reality.
“It’s going to take time for that team and group to form. They don’t really know each other. They just train with each other. We haven’t even had a chance to do team bonding because when we came in we just had to get them fit and right. You’d be surprised — team bonding is needed. Hopefully we can get stronger and get some of those sessions in.”
He added: “We’re happy enough with the result tonight. Personally I think we should have got three points. They were just a bit cleverer than us. We’re happy with the point.”
Cork City remain at the top of the Premier Division table, a point clear of Dundalk. Manager John Caulfield was unhappy with his side’s performance but he offered no excuses.
“Billy Dennehy got a cracking goal for them,” he said. “He ran 40 yards and wasn’t tracked. Then we were chasing the game. We came back into it and had a few chances. Overall we didn’t do enough. We looked leggy, which was disappointing. In fairness to Limerick they deserved their point.”
Caulfield added: “It’s always a battle up here, a difficult game, and maybe sometimes people think it’s one of those games that’s going to be easy. There’s no easy games, I keep saying that.
“Limerick deserved their point. We just didn’t do enough over the course of the game. We had a few chances in the first half to get the second goal. In the second half we had a few as well. But we just didn’t do enough overall. I suppose a lot of our top players didn’t play as well as they could.”
