Richardson wants Hill as his right-hand man at City

Damien Richardson has confirmed that he wants former Cobh Ramblers manager Dave Hill as his assistant at Cork City.

Richardson, whose side are top of the eircom League Premier Division, had Hill on the bench with him at Cork’s recent league game against Longford and was im pressed with his input.

“I have spoken at length with Dave and I know we will have a good working relationship at the club.

“He is back in England this week for a friend’s funeral but he will be back for our game with UCD on Friday night and hopefully we can sit down with the chairman after that and finalise things,” said Richardson.

City chairman Brian Lennox is expected to sanction the appointment at this meeting.

The former Cork City and Bohemians player and ex-Cobh boss is Richardson’s choice to fill the No. 2 post and work closely with the squad on the training ground.

Both men have agreed in principle to the ar rangement but need the chairman’s approval to finalise the deal.

“Damien and I have agreed to give it a go and obviously we have the best interests of the club at heart too,” said Hill.

On the team front, John O’Flynn (hip) is making good progress and could be on the bench for the UCD game and Denis Behan has a slight calf strain.

“John is back at three- quarters pace but we will have him sprinting by the weekend. It’s an injury that has plagued him for a few months and we want to get it cleared up prop erly,” said Richardson.

“Denis Behan should be fine by Friday and we won’t be making too many changes.

“We have a first class medical team in place now with Dr. Gerard Murphy, our physio Eileen O’Keeffe and Tom Enright, our masseur, all working away with the players’ rehabilitation.

“We are in a position now to treat all our injur ies within the club and that’s a big plus.

“It’s only if and when we need to consult with a specialist that we have to go outside the club struc ture,” he added.

“The thing is you can’t afford to have players out for too long now and having the best back-up in a medical sense is vital to the club’s success.”

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo