John Caulfield says Cork City are biggest club in league

Despite his disappointment at Friday’s 1-2 loss to Dundalk, Cork City manager John Caulfield was once again able to express pride in the club’s fan base, after a capacity crowd of nearly 7,000, in a season of bumper attendances at Turner’s Cross, turned up for the televised game.

“They’ve a passion for League of Ireland,” he said. “We are the biggest club out there. Historically, Shamrock Rovers have won more trophies but we are the biggest club in the league and, without the provincial teams, this league is nowhere. I get disappointed when I watch a lot of the games in Dublin because I look at the teams getting 1,200, 1,300 or 1,400 people and they’re near the top of the table and I’m asking ‘why aren’t they marketing their club?’, ‘why aren’t they bringing kids to the game?’ Bar Rovers, there is no-one in Dublin who attracts crowds anymore, which is very disappointing.

“Now people might say ‘you’re in Cork, you’ve one club in the city’ but Dublin has four times the population and the clubs are in areas with huge, huge populations. It’s disappointing. I feel at times that the boat has been missed in Dublin with the League of Ireland. We’re averaging more than 5,000 on Friday nights which just goes to show there’s a fantastic following for this team. They all went home disappointed on Friday but, to be fair to our supporters, one bad day won’t knock them. Once we get some good results they’ll be back. We’ll lick our wounds and go again.”