Cuthbert has high praise for 'leader' Goold

Brian Cuthbert and Mickey Harte had reasons to be disappointed, and relieved, with the outcome of yesterday’s entertaining affair on Leeside.

Both would naturally have preferred to have claimed victory but a share of the spoils left both relatively pleased.

“The lads themselves knew they weren’t playing well,” said Cork boss Brian Cuthbert of the half-time interval, when his team trailed by four points.

“They were staring down defeat on their home patch, which would have been very hard to swallow. I was very happy with the response, the comeback and getting ahead.

“I’m a bit disappointed we let them back into it with some needless fouls, but overall I would take great heart in the fact that we’re unbeaten here, another point on the board and we got a response from the players at half-time.”

Maintaining a clean sheet after conceding seven goals in the previous two games against Derry and Mayo was a plus.

“After conceding four goals the last day, we were adamant that we wouldn’t let one in. “David Hanrahan made a great save and Fintan Goold made a good block-down.”

Goold also came in for a special praise from the manager.

“It would be remiss of me to talk about this game and not say how pleased I am with Fintan,” Cuthbert said.

“He’s a much-maligned player in Cork but look at him today, he was our leader and played very well. When the game was in the melting pot, he drove us on big time.

“He’s the full package if the people of Cork get behind him and just back him.”

Tyrone boss Mickey Harte felt that the Red Hands could have put Cork under more pressure by building up more of a lead at half-time.

“The most disappointing thing was that, when we were four up, we had a few good chances to go five and six up,” he said.

“You always feel that was going to be critical. It seems like it doesn’t matter at the time but it does matter a lot. On such little fine lines do results often hinge.

“At one stage we were four down and it could have been eight just as handy, so you had to do something about it, were you going to let it build on or challenge? We were competitive, and that’s why we survived and got a point.”