Dunne: City are right on schedule

Even though he concedes Cliftonville’s strategically weakened side “weren’t the team that’s dominating the North,” Tommy Dunne declared himself very pleased with Cork City’s 4-0 trouncing of the Irish League leaders in their Setanta Cup first-leg game at Turner’s Cross on Monday night.

With nearly a month still to go to the kick-off of the Airtricity League, the City boss reckons his players are already in much better shape than this time last year.

“I think we’re at a different place altogether,” he says. “I’m not saying we were outrageously bad last year but we’ve tweaked a few things this year, gotten a bit stronger with the training and also everybody in the off-season has been doing their own work. Before we even kicked a ball or played a game in a match situation, we had 30 sessions under our belts. For us to be moving this well, at this time of the year, is probably testament to that.