Gearoid Morrissey: ‘Europe can rough you up. You come out of it licking your wounds’

By David Ludzik

Confidence is massive in sport, and having lost it for a few weeks, Gearoid Morrissey feels his Cork City side are back in shape and gunning for Dundalk ahead of Sunday’s FAI Cup final showdown.

Having bowed out of Europe in August 5-0 on aggregate to Rosenborg, John Caulfield’s side seemed to lose their way for a few weeks, which ended up with Dundalk stealing a march on their title rivals.

Following the Rosenborg games, City drew at home with St Pat’s and then lost their next three league games and Morrissey said it’s difficult to pinpoint on why there was a such a dip in form.

“You probably couldn’t put your finger on one thing,” said the City midfielder.

“It’s a lot of things together really. Sometimes Europe can rough you up a little. You come out of it licking your wounds at times.

“I think you need to come out of it and almost forget about it immediately and get straight into your bread and butter; the league and the cup. I think we probably didn’t.

“Individually, as players, I think it’s important that you have the knowhow to realise that you have to forget it. You got roughed about a bit in Europe, you’ve played against some really good teams, it can go one way or the other. It just went the other way for us. It then carried over and we weren’t ourselves for a couple of weeks.”

City, who are looking to make it three cup wins on the spin on Sunday, looked flat during that poor run but credit must go to the players and manager John Caulfield as they have bounced back since relinquishing their grip on the title and have looked impressive of late.

“Confidence is absolutely massive in sport. We lost a lot of it coming out of Europe for whatever reason and it’s tough to get it back,” said Morrissey, who had a spell at Cambridge United before returning to his hometown club.

“You lose that mental sharpness when you’re not confident. Things become hard work, you really need to focus on doing things. But when you’re confident, it just happens.

“We look like a different team compared to then. There is a pep in the step again, fellas are mentally sharp again. We looked lethargic, I think it all comes from the confidence, from confidence comes energy, the pep in the step, the mental step, you’re enjoying it, it’s not such hard work. That takes work to get confidence back. We did that thankfully because it’s massive going into a cup final with maximum confidence.”

The exciting midfielder has had to bounce back himself a few times, so he is well aware of how difficult the game can be having left Ringmahon Rangers as a 16-year-old to sign for Blackburn Rovers. Having failed to make the grade at Ewood Park, he returned to sign for Cork City before getting a second chance across the water with Cambridge United having impressed on his return to Cork.

Morrissey has weighed in with some terrific goals since returning home for the second time and Stephen Kenny’s men will know they have to close him down quickly before he gets any sight of goal on Sunday or it could be curtains for the Lillywhite’s.

However, he has been carrying a few knocks but should be fully fit for Sunday.

“It’s my groin, since the start of the season, I’ve always had one or two issues with them, nothing major but just niggly injuries which is sometimes worse because they come and go. At the moment, I’m still being assessed by physios and stuff, but I’ll make sure I’m ready to rock on Sunday.”

So, is Morrissey glad it’s Dundalk again in the cup final for the fourth year on the trot and his side have a chance to stop the Co Louth side claiming another double?

“You take your foot off the gas at all in a title race and you’re going to pay the price. We did that, and they won it, fair play and credit where credit’s due. But we can’t wait to put it right on Sunday.

“They deserve to be there, we deserve to be there. You want to play against the best Dundalk team that they have because you feel afterwards that you have earned it.

“People say it’s Cork and Dundalk again and so be it. It’s up to everybody else to have that consistency. If it was me, I’d look at it in admiration and think I need to get to that level, to make sure I’m in the final every year. Credit to both teams in the final this year, they deserve to be there.”