Ashton plays down crisis talk

Stuart Ashton is anxious his Cork City players aren’t spooked by the perceived high stakes of tomorrow night’s Airtricity League meeting with fellow strugglers Bohemians at Turner’s Cross.

“It’s branded as a six-pointer and we all know the importance of it, but I’ve got to stress that it’s not crisis point if things don’t go for us,” said the caretaker manager. “For the lads especially, we’ve got to keep that one real.”

In what was only his second game at the helm after replacing Tommy Dunne, Ashton saw his wildly experimental home side hit for six by West Brom on Tuesday night. But he was still keen to stress the positives of the friendly fire.

“With the game coming this Friday we had to be careful with players but the benefit was this would be a learning curve, especially for the younger lads. The positives for us overall were the way we played, in the first half especially, against top opposition.”

On the subject of returning old boys Liam Kearney and Ray Lally, Ashton said: “Liam Kearney is out of contract at the moment so it was a chance to look at him. And, in fairness, I thought the two lads did well.”