If we perform, I believe we can defy expectations, says confident Caulfield

Back-to-back league champions and double-chasing Dundalk might be the favourites with many to lift the FAI Cup on Sunday but Cork City manager John Caulfield only has to look back into his own CV as a player with the club for striking evidence that the final is a day like no other.

“It’s easy for me to say, at 50 years of age, because I have seen it,” he reflected yesterday. “I have been in a Cup final in 1992 (against Bohemians), where we were odds-on to win, we just had to go up and collect the trophy, and we went back home with our tail between our legs. Then we went up in 1998, we were given no chance, Shelbourne were home and dry to beat us - and we won the Cup. So the Cup is funny.

”There is huge hype in the city now. The good thing about it is that a lot of people are not giving us much of a chance, so maybe it’s easier to keep the players’ feet on the ground and be more focused, because everyone is expecting Dundalk to win the double. From my point of view it’s about managing the situation.”