Murray: City ‘must win’ crunch Pats clash
Coming off the back of a positive performance but disappointing result in the Setanta Cup semi-final against Linfield on Monday, third-placed City know that they need to find their goal touch if Pats, nine points ahead of them in the table, are not to disappear over the horizon.
“It’s a must win game for us,” is how Cork skipper Dan Murray puts it.
“We’ve played them twice (in the Setanta Cup) and I don’t think we deserved to lose the two games against them. So we want to put a statement down that we’re still in the race and that we want to win the League title. And that starts for us with this game against Pats. It’s a match between probably two of the better footballing teams in the league. It’s going to be tough but I think the disappointment of losing a game against Linfield which we should have won will only drive us on for this one.”
Murray is still at something of a loss to make sense of Cork’s exit from the Setanta Cup in Windsor Park.
“Sometimes you can’t account for what happens in games like the other night,” he muses, “but you’ve just got to take the positives out of it – we played the best team in the north off the pitch, simple as that. But we’ve got to move on now. We can’t think about the Setanta Cup no more, it’s gone.
‘‘The League is more important now. And we’ve got to start winning games because we’re drawing too many at the minute.”
Damien Richardson reports that John O’ Flynn is still struggling with the thigh strain which restricted him to 50 minutes against Linfield. The manager will give the striker until tomorrow to prove his fitness but won’t risk him if there is any doubt about his readiness for the fray.
The decision will be made somewhat easier for Richardson by the availability of leading scorer Roy O’ Donovan, who missed the Linfield game through suspension. Dan Murray also sees the return of the striker as a major boost for City.
“I think if we’d had Roy (against Linfield) it would have been a different story, we would have won comfortably,” he says. “Although that’s easier said than done – it might have been a different game. But Roy is a danger, everyone knows that. Any team would struggle if it lost its top goal scorer. So it’ll be nice to have him back in the team and I think he’ll be well up for the game after missing out on the Setanta semi-final.”
Murray knows that Cork can expect a searching test from an impressive Pats side who are still unbeaten in the league.
“They’re on fire,” he says. “They’ve signed some very good players, especially Joseph Ndo who was the Player Of The Year last season. He’s helped make them play football more than they’ve ever done. But we try and play football too, and that’s what everyone wants to see in the League.
‘‘We’re confident enough at home to beat them and, after beating us in Turner’s Cross, they’re probably confident that they can beat us again. So it’ll be two teams going for a win and that’s what you want to see.
‘‘Hopefully it’ll be a good spectacle and hopefully we’ll get the three points.”
Damien Richardson also accepts that it’s not enough for his side to flatter only to deceive.
“The longer we go without winning games that we should be winning, the bigger the test becomes for us,” he says. “But I feel we have what it takes to overcome that. In many respects, tonight’s game is more important than the other night. To have had a Setanta Cup Final in Cork would have been a momentous occasion. But the League is always the priority. If I had to choose, I would rather win tonight than in the Setanta Cup semi-final. I’m glad the game has come so quickly because it gives us the opportunity to really show people that we aren’t going to lie down and start feeling sorry for ourselves.”
And he emphasises too the significance of tonight’s game in terms of Cork’s title prospects.
“It has very extreme overtones, I have to say, in relation to the season,” he says. “But while the three points are important there something even more important running right through this – and that’s for us to prove a point, to show that we have something special. But it’s not enough for us to just play well, we have to win games. Tonight can’t come quickly enough.”
With only midfielder Michael Foley out, after jarring a knee in the recent 2-2 draw with Drogheda United, manager Johnny McDonnell will be feeling confident that his high-flying Pats can make it three wins out of three against Cork this season, a win which would also put the Dubliners five points clear at the top, although second-placed Drogheda would have a game in hand.
Meanwhile, Damien Richardson has poured cold water on a report yesterday linking Cork City with Cardiff City’s Jason Byrne. “That’s news to me,” said the Cork boss, who gave no impression that the former Shelbourne striker features anywhere on his shopping list.
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