Bowdren pleased with vital victory
SOCCER
Daire Walsh
CORK CITY cemented their position as the pace-setters in the SSE Airtricity U17 Southern Elite Division on Sunday afternoon, when they recorded a 2-1 victory over UCD at Belfield.
This means the Leesiders are now eight points clear of the second-placed south Dublin outfit (and are virtually guaranteed of a home play-off semi-final), but Cork manager Paul Bowdren acknowledged that UCD are one of the tough opponents they have faced this year.
“Of the team we’ve played, apart from St Pat’s who are an excellent side, they were the team that caused us the most problems.
“When we played them in Bishopstown, we were kind of fortunate enough to get out of it.
“We knew today was going to be difficult as well, and it turned out that way,” Bowdren remarked.
“We got a great start, and we pointed out the danger man for them [Neil Farrugia], and we worked on it during the week, but he was still able to get the goal that brought them back into it.
“They threw everything at us, but I thought we defended very well.”
The visitors had opened the scoring with a stunning strike from full-back Ronan Hurley, and on the stroke of 20 minutes, they doubled their lead with a looping header by Cian Leonard.
The City striker is currently in a rich vein of form, and Bowdren feels he should be contention for an international call-up at underage level.
“Cian Leonard is a fantastic player, he got the goal. I’d have to say, why he isn’t recognised is a mystery to me. He’s got 23 goals or something now this season, and he’s fantastic.
“People don’t realise how good he is. His hold-up play, his link-up play, he’s good in the air, and actually the one he missed in the first-half. When he misses shots like that, we’re saying ‘how are you doing that?’, he’s so good.”
Cork did suffer a set-back on 35 minutes, as Leonard’s attacking partner, Cian Murphy, was forced off with a shoulder injury.
Bowdren is hopeful that it won’t be a serious problem for Murphy – who he believes will have an important role to play in the business end of their campaign.
“He was a big loss to us, Cian [Murphy], because when the game opened up, especially in the second-half.
“Because he gets beyond defenders, and asks questions. Hopefully it won’t be too bad. It’s on his shoulder, he landed on his shoulder, so I’m hoping it won’t be too serious, because he’d be a big loss to us,” Bowdren added.