CORK CITY GOALKEEPER Mark McNulty has committed to two more years with the 2017 double champions.
The Ballincollig native was pivotal as City won their first SSE Airtricity League Premier Division title in 12 years, having been there through ‘the bad times,’ as he said himself.
He then proved their penalty shootout hero in the Aviva as the Leesiders claimed an historic fist league/FAI Cup double with a win over Dundalk.
In the run-up to that game, the 37-year-old goalkeeper’s ‘Fuck the Lilywhites’ chant was a huge talking point and he was the player to ultimately break Dundalk hearts as he stopped Michael Duffy’s penalty before Kieran Sadlier sealed the deal.
The club today confirmed that McNulty has signed a new two-year contract on their website.
“I have been talking to John (Caulfield) about it for a while, so I am delighted to get it done,” he told CorkCityFC.
“After the way things went last season, I think there are good times ahead for Cork City. We have Champions League football to look forward to, we want to retain the League and the FAI Cup, go after the EA Sports Cup, and we also have the Munster Senior Cup, President’s Cup… We have a lot to look forward to next year!
“It is all about experience and, once you are doing the job on the pitch, I don’t think age matters. I am looking forward to next season and can’t wait to get started.
“John is bringing in quality players and, knowing him, he is still not finished. We had the best defence in the league last season and bringing quality players can only make us better again. Whoever is picked, I look forward to playing with them, because they are all top players.”
City manager John Caulfield added:
“There was never a question that Nults wouldn’t be staying on. Since we came in as the management team, he has played every single league game bar one, which shows how consistent he is.
“We all saw what a phenomenal performance he had in the cup final, saving the penalty, but his overall display was excellent as well. You look at his clean sheet record over the last four years; he has never been below 16, which is half the games.
BREAKING | We are delighted to announce that @nults16 is the latest player to have #SignedFor2018! Read more: https://t.co/sct2ysW6Qy #CCFC84 pic.twitter.com/1Miy9sNYXp
— Cork City FC (@CorkCityFC) November 14, 2017
“Mark is looking forward to next season and he has been an instrumental part of the last four years, so we are happy with him and he is happy to be here. In himself and Alan Bennett, we have two very experienced, local guys, who know the club inside out and pass on good habits to all of the players who come into this club.
“The majority of our team are aged from 20 to 26, you need a couple of wise heads around the training ground and the dressing room, and those two are fantastic. Nults’ performances have shown he is the top goalkeeper in the country.
“We have tried to do a lot of work very quickly this year. A lot of players indicated that they wanted to come to Cork City and we had to make sure that the players we brought in were the right ones to fit in with the group that is here. The squad is shaping up quickly and, over the next couple of weeks, we hope to have finalised the majority of the team.”
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