O'Flynn marks debut with City in splendid style

IF the example of Cork City new boy John O'Flynn is anything to go by, then the collapse of the ITV Digital deal with the Nationwide League is definitely going to benefit their Irish counterparts.

O’Flynn, 19, marked his Eircom League debut in emphatic style at the weekend when he spearheaded Cork City’s opening-day 3-0 victory over champions Shelbourne by creating the first goal and scoring the other two to the delight of a 5,000 crowd at Turners Cross. That Cobh-born O’Flynn was there at all is a question of economics. He was just one of the victims of the wave of cost-cutting currently sweeping through the English lower divisions following the decision last season by the ailing ITV Digital network to pull out of its £493m television rights contract still owing £279m. That left O’Flynn and six other Peterborough United youngsters being shown the door after three years under the tutelage of Barry Fry at the East Midlands club. “They just ran out of money,” O’Flynn explained. I had been given an extra year at the club, but when the TV contract ended, myself and six others were let go.

“I didn’t make a League appearance there, which was disappointing, and I had a couple of serious injuries which set me back, a growth problem in my second year there and then with my feet, which meant seeing a lot of specialists. Barry Fry was a good man and it was definite learning curve which has helped me enormously. It’s just that the money wasn’t there.