Dáire O’Connor leaves Cork City, Neale Fenn confirms

Neale Fenn: 'We decided it was best if he moved on and went elsewhere'. Picture: Dan Linehan

Winger Dáire O’Connor has left Cork City, manager Neale Fenn has confirmed.

Wicklowman O’Connor started the Rebel Army’s last two games, the draw at Finn Harps and last Saturday’s defeat at home to St Patrick’s Athletic, but, having been substituted after 32 minutes along with Dylan McGlade, he was informed by Fenn that he was surplus to requirements.

However, while there had been rumours of more departures, Fenn said that O’Connor would be the only player exiting.

“I just had a chat with Dáire and explained that the chances of him playing over the next few games are going to be quite slim,” he said.

“We decided it was best if he moved on and went elsewhere. I don’t think that anyone else will be leaving the club at this stage.”

City are bottom of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division, two points behind Finn Harps, who drew with Dundalk on Sunday. While the Lilywhites had a weakened team after their Europa League exploits, Fenn doesn’t feel hard-done-by.

“I think a manager can pick whatever team he wants,” he said.

“He [Filippo Giovagnoli] can put out whichever starting 11 he feels will go and win the game. Obviously, they did it against Rovers and it didn’t work, Rovers are putting out more or less the same 11 every week and they’re getting great results and they’re very consistent.

“Obviously, our game against Dundalk was called off after a European game and they could have put out a second 11 but, listen, you can’t take anything away from Harps.

“They went away to Dundalk and picked up a point, kept a clean sheet, which is a great result for them.”

Next up for City is a trip to face second-placed Bohemians on Friday and Fenn is looking for a marked improvement from the defeat to Pat’s.

“It hurt us a lot,” he said, “the result obviously but the performance, too.

“The first 25 minutes were just [bad] but if you concede two goals in the first ten minutes, any game is going to be difficult, especially against a team full of confidence players, if things are going well for them, they look unbelievable.

“We knew how we had to approach that game, stay in it as long as we could and go and attack them and hopefully get a goal that way.

“Obviously, if you concede two after ten minutes, it’s just extremely difficult. Trying to get the belief back into the boys and trying to get confidence back into them, a little bit of shape and defensive organisation.”