CORK CITY MIDFIELDER Conor McCormack is confident that their back-to-back victories under interim manager John Cotter can be the catalyst for the Leesiders to salvage their ailing season.
City built on last weekend’s 1-0 win at Bohemians by seeing off UCD on a 2-0 scoreline last night at Turner’s Cross.
Having rebounded from an eight-match winless streak that led to the departure of previous boss John Caulfield, the outlook is suddenly brighter for the 2017 champions.
“We’ve done really well in the last few games,” said McCormack. “We’ve defended well. We got a bit of luck at times last week but I think we deserved that because of the workrate.
“The lads have been fantastic so we’re just happy to get the two wins, because they were badly needed. We’re in a place that this club shouldn’t be so we look onwards and upwards now.”
Last night’s result leaves City in seventh place, level on points with sixth-placed Waterford and Sligo Rovers in eighth. Those two sides face each other this evening at the RSC.
“John [Caulfield] had been fantastic for us. It was just unfortunate,” added McCormack, who won a Premier Division and FAI Cup double under Caulfield two years ago.
“In some games this season we threw away leads in the last 10 or 15 minutes, which just isn’t like us. Whether it was a lack of concentration or defensive errors, it just wasn’t us. We’re glad to be back keeping clean sheets, defending well and scoring goals.”
Cork City’s bid to maintain an upward trajectory will face a massive test next Friday evening when they host champions Dundalk, who assumed top spot thanks to last night’s 2-0 win away to Bohemians.
“This club is too good to be down where it is and we have to take the blame for that,” McCormack said. “We’re better players than that. We did have a couple of meetings amongst ourselves.
“I think we did play well in some games. In Waterford I thought we played really well in the first half, but we were unfortunate then that a deflected goal from 30 or 40 yards goes into the top corner. You’re thinking, ‘here we go again’.
“Defensive errors were kind of killing us all year. But we’ve got clean sheets now in the last two games and we’re back to scoring freely and playing well. Hopefully we can build on that now.”
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