Cork City manager John Caulfield has admitted he was disappointed with his side’s performance against St Patrick’s Athletic and he believes they didn’t deserve to win the game. Josh O’Hanlon’s late header was enough to earn City a point at Turner’s
Cork City manager John Caulfield has admitted he was disappointed with his side’s performance against St Patrick’s Athletic and he believes they didn’t deserve to win the game. Josh O’Hanlon’s late header was enough to earn City a point at Turner’s Cross on Sunday night but with Dundalk winning 24 hours later, the Champions now trail the Lilywhites by three points having played a game more. “It was a frustrating night, disappointing,” said Caulfield. “We were leggy but we don’t like making excuses. We didn’t do well enough in the game and we found it difficult to open up St Pats. “They had a comfortable first half but we didn’t put them under enough pressure. We possibly could have had a penalty but that’s just the way it goes. “Second half we switched off and conceded a soft goal and were chasing the match then. The substitutes made a good impact. “Gearoid (Morrissey), Johnny (Dunleavy) and Josh (O’Hanlon) coming in all made an impact so in the end it would have been great if we could have pulled it off but over the 90 minutes we didn’t do enough. “Every game, you can’t underestimate anyone. Every league of Ireland match is tough. People come and assume you’re going to win every match but it doesn’t happen that way. “The guys maybe thought it was going to be easier than it was but I always say in the game you have to earn the right and we weren’t good enough and that’s what’s disappointing.” The Leesiders faced Pats just three days after they were convincingly beaten 3-0 by Rosenborg in Norway which ended their European journey for another season. But the City boss refused to use that as an excuse as attentions now turn to Friday night’s FAI Cup second-round match at home to Maynooth University Town. “Before the match and yesterday (Saturday) everybody said they were fine,” he added. “I keep saying that we have a big panel and the boys need to be 100 percent ready and they all put up their hand to say that they were. “But in the game, we didn’t do enough. Our passing wasn’t good enough and sharp enough and we played the game with too much of a slow tempo in the first half. “The urgency came into our play when we went a goal down which was disappointing but we'll move on to the Cup game on Friday and that’s the most important game at this stage.”
