Rico delighted for two-goal Behan

Longford Town 0 Cork City 2

Behan reminded Richardson that he is the player to lead the Cork attack in the Champions League first round, first leg qualifying tie against Apollon Limassol on Wednesday with two goals inside 15 minutes.

“Scoring goals is Denis’s greatest strength,” said Richardson. “But what Denis is doing at the moment is he’s learning the game, he’s raising his concentration levels very highly. His game has improved as a consequence. His mobility is far batter than it ever has been and he’ll always score goals.

“But now he’s becoming a better all-round player with high levels of concentration. It is a great progression for him.”

City gave themselves a huge confidence boost ahead of their crunch Champions League tie in two days’ time with a hugely impressive 90-minute performance that had Richardson beaming afterwards.

“It is great to be top. What makes it more pleasing was the level of performance in difficult conditions. It was a thoroughly professional performance and the beauty of it was that we were well balanced in each department and everyone applied themselves with great diligence.

“From a manager’s perspective, everybody played well but it was the team performance which shone and that’s very important and very encouraging. We had so much possession that every time Longford got on the ball we put them under pressure and every time we got the ball we moved it quickly, played one and two-touch football.”

He added: “Longford heads were down long before the finish — they knew they’d been outclassed. For me it put things in perspective. There were two games up there — the Cup game and this game — and this was the more important game to win for me.”

Richardson admits that Wednesday night’s game was not discussed last week. With the three points in the bag and back in a familiar position on top of the league, all minds are now focused on the job at hand. We’ll train Monday and Tuesday, and if we can provide a very good level of performance it could be very interesting indeed. We’re all keyed up, we’re all ready for it and last night was the perfect present.”

Longford were never at the races and struggled with a lone striker system that was always going to make life difficult against the league champions. Cork struck twice inside the opening 15 minutes to basically end the contest, both finished by the in-form Behan.

His first goal, after 10 minutes, came about after Neale Fenn’s initial strike was well saved by Mick Dempsey. The ball broke to Behan who stroked it home.

Five minutes later, Behan grabbed his second goal. This time the striker cut in from the right to unleash an unstoppable shot that flew past Dempsey.

Longford were forced to push central defender Kevin Doherty forward to partner Dessie Baker in an attempt to create some trouble for the visiting defence. And the switch certainly improved things for the home side.

Stephen Gough saw his 39th minute free kick well saved by City custodian Mick Devine while six minutes later Danny O’Connor’s drive was well over the crossbar.

The second half created very little by way of goalmouth action. Behan did have a free kick well saved by Dempsey in the 58th minute, while Neale Fenn saw his 85th-minute strike scrape the paint off Mick Dempsey’s right hand post.

LONGFORD TOWN: Dempsey; Murphy, Doherty, Paisley, Prunty; J. Martin, Gough (Kirby 64), O’Connor, Fitzgerald, Cronin (Reilly 54); Baker (R. Martin 64).

CORK CITY: Devine; Murphy, Murray, Bennett, Horgan; O’Donovan, Gamble, O’Brien, Woods; Behan, Fenn.

Referee: Pat Whelan (Dublin).