TWO GAMES, TWO defeats, no goals.
Cork City’s start to the 2019 SSE Airtricity League Premier Division has been less than inspiring.
Having lost out 1-0 to St Patrick’s Athletic on the opening night, the 2017 double winners went down 2-0 at home to Waterford on Friday — with Bastien Hery and Zak Elbouzedi among the goals in front of 4,382 at Turner’s Cross.
“People can see that we’ve created a few chances but we haven’t scored and that’s frustrating,” Leesiders boss John Caulfield said after the result.
“But we have to move on to Monday night, there are no easy days.”
There’s been a significant turnover of players during the off-season and some of the young, recent arrivals will need time to settle, according to he City boss.
“It’s difficult,” he added. “You look at our team – [Conor] McCarthy, [Sean] McLoughlin, [Ronan] Hurley, [Dan] Casey coming in, you had Dáire O’Connor and young James Tilley.
“They’re all guys who are 20-21. It was a full house tonight — big crowd — so there’s a bit of pressure and that’s the test. These guys will do great, they’re smashing lads and they’re working hard, but it’s one thing [doing it] in training when there’s no pressure on you and it’s a different thing out there.
We can’t score a goal at the moment and it’s frustrating, but just move on and work on these things.
“We know the team will gel, because we can see it everyday. There was no reason to think otherwise when we looked at training this week and the way we worked — the shape of the team and the way they played. The fact that we didn’t carry it into tonight, that’s nervousness and a lack of confidence in front of the big crowd.
“The lads will get that and they’ll adjust, we can see the talent in the team and we’ve said that all along. At the moment, do we lack a bit of experience? We do, but it will come.”
There’s a full set of top-flight fixtures again tonight, and last season’s runners-up are away to Sligo Rovers.
Experienced defender Alan Bennett came off with a tight hamstring early in the second half, and he is set to miss out, while Gearóid Morrissey, Shane Griffin and Graham Cummins are all doubts.
The Bit O’Red, now under the guidance of Liam Buckley, held the champions Dundalk to a 1-1 draw before an injury-time goal from former player Mikey Drennan handed them a loss at the Showgrounds three days ago.
- Reporting by Paul Dollery
Subscribe to our new podcast, The42 Rugby Weekly, here:
