Manager Caulfield says City's ‘dirty’ tag unfair

Cork City manager John Caulfield believes his side are being unfairly painted as dirty following last Friday’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division clash with St Patrick’s Athletic.

City had six bookings in the 1-1 draw against the champions – with captain John Dunleavy receiving two yellow cards – but ahead of Sunday’s trip to the Brandywell to face Derry City, Caulfield is keen to put the record straight.

“The most extraordinary thing was the spin put on it that Cork were physical,” he said. “When you look at it, the physio from St Pat’s never came on to the pitch for any one of our yellow cards. I think that answers the question.

“Pat’s have the won league, they have super players who are very experienced and I think a lot of the time they anticipated the challenges. In hindsight, maybe if the game was viewed again, some of the cards mightn’t have been cards.

In fact, Caulfield feels there is a real lack of nastiness within the team.

“I actually think we’re probably the cleanest side out there,” he said.

“I’m watching them every day in training and we have a fantastic bunch of guys who train as hard as they can and they’re exceptionally clean.

“There is no nastiness in our team, if anything it’s probably an area that we wish we could bring back a John Cotter or a Liam Murphy!”

With Dunleavy suspended, striker Anthony Elding is rated as touch and go by Caulfield while fellow attackers Michael Rafter and Danny Morrissey continue their rehabilitation.

They will also be without left-back Danny Murphy, who parted company with the club yesterday.

Caulfield paid tribute to the defender, who had three separate spells with City.

“It’s very hard for me or the club to comment on the situation at the moment and we can’t, really,” he said.

“Everyone knows he was a fantastic servant to the club, he won league medals with the club and he won league medals with [Shamrock] Rovers.

“When he was with City over the years, winning the league and the FAI Cup and the Setanta Cup, he made the left-back position his own. He was a fantastic reader of the game, a tough tackler, a great fella to knock in the ball. He was a super player and it’s just unfortunate that he won’t be with us anymore.”