Caulfield: ‘Keohane injury a setback’
SOCCER
Daire Walsh
FOLLOWING a very competitive encounter with Bohemians at Dalymount Park yesterday evening, Cork City manager John Caulfield was delighted to secure a 2-0 win in the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
With eight successive wins under their belts, City were hot favourites for their latest trip to the north Dublin venue, but Caulfield was under no illusions about how difficult it would prove to be.
“We’re happy. People on paper saw it as a soft game, I never saw that throughout my career up in Dalymount Park. It’s never an easy game. I saw them last week against Sligo, and they played really well,” Caulfield remarked after the game.
“They just can’t buy a goal at the moment. It was a real battle in the first half; wind was strong, and we needed a wonder goal from [Karl] Sheppard to get us ahead, because we hadn’t really looked like scoring up to that point.”
This latest win, which also included a late goal from Garry Buckley, ensures the Leesiders are nine points clear at the top of the table, but even though champions Dundalk have already dropped nine points, Caulfield is only concerned about the performances of his side.
“The only thing I’m concentrating on is our own performance. Playing every week, making sure we give our maximum performance, and we go out every week to get the three points – and we need to focus and concentrate on that.
“We’ve done very well, and what happens anywhere else isn’t our interest. We just drive on ourselves, and make sure we do what we have to do.”
There was some disappointing news for City on the night, though, as full-back Jimmy Keohane suffered a dislocated shoulder at the start of the second-half. This is a major setback for Cork at a time when Greg Bolger, Achille Campion and John Dunleavy are returning from injury, but Caulfield feels that Steven Beattie will prove to be an able deputy on the right-hand side of defence.
“Disappointing. He [Jimmy Keohane] dislocated his shoulder, so obviously he’s going to be out for a bit of time, and that’s a setback to us.
“Obviously, after getting [Greg] Bolger back, [Achille] Campion back, [John] Dunleavy nearly back, it’s disappointing to lose a guy like Jimmy.
“He’s going to be out for a while. He’s done really well for us. The only thing about it, we have a squad. Obviously, Beats [Steven Beattie] came on tonight, he’d been out for a while.Thankfully, from that point of view, at least we have a replacement,” Caulfield added.