We're not the beast to Dundalk's beauty, insists Cork City manager John Caulfield
When asked earlier this week why goals and thrills have been hard to come by in the last three FAI Cup final meetings with Cork City, Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny suggested it was down to what he regarded as a stark contrast in styles.
“We’ve set out to play,” he said. “They’ve had a game-plan to sort of stifle and try and keep it tight.”
That can’t be interpreted as anything other than a barbed comment but, to be fair to Kenny, it’s not as if he ever suggests his team’s biggest rivals are less than formidable opponents.
“Cork won’t hand it to you,” he said in the same interview.
“They close you down quicker than any other team. They don’t give you a minute in possession and you have to absolutely earn everything.”
Others have been less kind in their analysis of the Rebels. ‘Hoofball’ was a word that cropped up more than once as the disenchanted reacted with disdain to City’s bid to retain their league title going off the rails in a bruising spell from late August into early September.
“Also, with that caricature set up in contrast to Dundalk’s free-flowing, easy-on-the-eye style, it feeds into a fairly widespread perception that tomorrow’s showdown at the Aviva represents a clash between beauty and the beast.
“Obviously, a lot of people don’t watch us a lot,” is John Caulfield’s terse response to that one.
“Are we able to pass the ball? We are. Are we able to score goals? We are. Twelve months ago we won a double. We won 21 out of 22 games which, when you think about it, is incredible, and we played some fantastic football, but part of football, too, is defending brilliantly.”
“We play a high-pressure game. Look at Atletico Madrid under Simeone and how they’ve built their platform on playing a high-pressure game. Obviously, that’s at a totally different level, but we like to play much more on the front foot. Are we a slow, passing, build-up team? No, we’re not.
“We’re trying to be more exciting, more attacking. Our supporters like to see an all-action team and that’s what we are about, but if you ask me are we afraid to pass? Absolutely not. That’s what we do at training every day: One and two-touch, moving the ball, switching the play, but, you know, when we play like that, I don’t think people want to write about it.”
Given the team’s huge success under his stewardship, it’s easy to forget that Cork City is Caulfield’s first job as manager at the highest level of club football in Ireland.
Yet, he is wise enough in the ways of the game to know that criticism, while never less than hurtful, comes with the territory. What really gets him riled, however, is when fiction replaces fact, which he says is what happened when the going got rough on the pitch for City this season and, according to the rumour mill, things got rougher behind the scenes.
“There were stories going around Cork that Alan Bennett and I had a bust-up in training and were throwing punches at each other,” he says.
“Nonsense stuff. People were just inventing things. Telling lies. It was a small minority, but that’s how it is in modern society. We have brilliant supporters, but there’s always a nasty element that come on stream when you’re successful. Are they real supporters? I go to Munster rugby matches and even when they lose they’re clapped off by the fans. Last year, you win 21 games and, when you lose one, a small minority start booing. What’s that about?
“I think we’re a bit brainwashed by England. It’s as if some people think we’re paid millions to do this. We’re not. I think it’s probably cool to slag us and maybe not cool to slag someone else. And it’s probably cool to slag me off as well, and that’s fine, but in five years, we’ve been in Europe five times, we’ve never been outside the top two, we’ve done a double, we’ve won three President’s Cups [and] we’re in our fourth cup final.”
While them’s the facts, the loss of their title still hurts, though, with Caulfield of the opinion that, more than anything else, it was his side’s European exit that did the damage.
“Going out of Europe against Rosenborg was desperately disappointing,” he says.
“More in the realisation of how good Rosenborg were. The hype was that we were going to beat Rosenborg and Dundalk were going to beat Larnaca. But Dundalk were beaten 4-0 by Larnaca. Four-nil.
“These sides in Europe are getting further and further away from us. In this league, clubs live year to year, they sell their best players, and there’s no sustainable model, but, yeah, that defeat against Rosenborg was a tough defeat. Did I think it would take as much out of the team as it did? No, I didn’t, but sometimes players go through that and have to deal with it.
“I keep saying, they’re human beings, and it affected us for three or four weeks. It was a big blow to confidence within the group and it individually knocked a number of players. Then, we ended up dropping points and losing a couple of games and then we were out of the running.
“Otherwise, the consistency of this team has been phenomenal. It’s just that we lost three games in three weeks and, in this league, at this moment, when you’ve two teams who are neck and neck, you can’t afford that, but it was never about the players not being good enough. It was just that we had a bad month at a bad time, but in the last month they’ve got back, absolutely, and the players did that.”
So, after all that’s gone before between the great rivals, what’s Caulfield’s take on tomorrow’s renewal of hostilities?
“I think all the matches over the last few years between the teams have been tight and I think that’s because both teams are strong defensively,” he says.
“Obviously, we won 3-0 in Oriel, but that was out of the norm. Overall, I think the teams are very even. If you were a gambling guy, you’d say that, based on the last three years, it will be tight again.
“We got five against Bray at the weekend and three against Derry the week before, but this will be the top two teams. Look, if an early goal goes in, it could change the whole game. In the last three cup finals, that hasn’t happened, but there have been chances.
“From our point of view, we have to play to our best and, if we do, we’ve a right chance and I think we’ll win, but if we don’t play to our best, then it won’t be good enough.”
Last 10 meetings
Cork City 0-1 Dundalk (Shields 3)
Dundalk 2-1 Cork City (Adorján 47, McLoughlin og 90; O’Hanlon 67)
Cork City 1-0 Dundalk (Morrissey 60)
Dundalk 1-0 Cork City (Hoban 9)
Dundalk 2-4 Cork City (Murray 19, 40; Sheppard 49, McNamee 55, Sadlier 79, Cummins 81)
Dundalk 1-1 Cork City (Vemmelund 95; Campion 111, Cork win 5-on pens)
Cork City 1-1 Dundalk (Gartland og 20; Benson 87)
Dundalk 0-3 Cork City (Maguire 19, 71, 90)
Cork City 2-1 Dundalk (Sheppard 22, 37; McMillan 73)
Cork City 3-0 Dundalk (Maguire 15, O’Connor 68, Sheppard 90)
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