Bowden accentuates the positives despite last-gasp defeat
SOCCER
Daire Walsh
DESPITE losing 3-2 to Shamrock Rovers at the Tallaght Stadium last Saturday in the SSE Airtricity League Southern Elite Division, Cork City U17 manager Paul Bowdren was keen to focus on the positive aspects of their performance.
City had cancelled out Rovers’ initial two-goal lead with second-half finishes from Cian Murphy and Cian Bargary, before a stoppage-time intervention by Conor Behan ensured that the home team claimed all three points.
This was a cruel way for the Leesiders to be denied a share of the spoils, but when you consider Rovers had gone five games without conceding a goal, there is plenty for Bowdren to build on with his squad.
“I was saying to the lads in there, I counted eight really good goal-scoring chances that, on a day, if things go right, you’ll actually end up getting eight goals.
“That’s not an exaggeration. We had two or three in the first-half. We had a header in the second-half that went over, and we’d one cleared off the line.
“Cian Murphy was clean through, and if he probably just angled it a bit more outside the post (he’d have scored). They’re actually really good chances, and to create that amount of chances, away from home against a top team, I was really pleased with.”
A major catalyst for City’s second period fightback was the introduction of Bargary to their attack.
His superb curling effort levelled matters in the 85th-minute, and although he has been troubled by injury in recent times, Bowdren felt his pace caused huge problems for the Rovers defence.
“He [Bargary] caused them a lot of problems. He’s been struggling with an injury, and he was told maybe just get 20, 25 minutes, but we just had to do it then.
“Our left-back [Colin O’Mahony] got injured. It worked because the two lads up front, they’re very quick, and he did cause them problems.”
However, with three defeats from their opening eight games of the league, there are elements of Cork’s play that Bowdren will be looking to address. While he believes it was a harsh decision to award Rovers a penalty in the closing stages of the first-half, he acknowledged that they struggled to cope with the direct approach for Jack Kelly’s opening goal of the contest.
“It was a long-ball, and we didn’t deal with the header. Then the covering defender slipped. I didn’t think there was much in the penalty. That’s the way it goes. Where we were well in the game, all of a sudden we found ourselves two down,” Bowdren added.