Keegan calls for focus after impressive Cork draw

Galway United became the first Premier Division team to take points off Cork City this season, drawing 1-1 with them at Eamonn Deacy Park as Stephen Folan’s header cancelled out Conor McCormack’s opener.

Tribesmen manager Shane Keegan was all praise for his defence following the result, but warned that they need to go again on Friday.

“Overall, a really good defensive display,” Keegan said.

“I’ve said to them down there, for all the pats on the back they deserve for tonight, tonight will count for almost nothing unless we deliver next Friday night. Based on the last time we played against Finn Harps, you couldn’t get two more different games.”

The Laois native commented that although he was proud of his defenders, he wants to see more from his attackers moving forward.

“Next week is a game where we need not Stevie Folan to be our best player, we need Podge [Cunningham] to be our best player, we need those types of players to be our best. So, I would argue that the next seven days are the biggest seven days in our season so far.”

Cork manager John Caulfield was unperturbed to see his side lose their winning streak when their 12-game run was raised in the post-match huddle.

“It never threw me off because it’s only rubbish, it’s immaterial. You start a league to win a league, that’s your aim. Records mean nothing. The league title, at the end of the day, is the record you want,” Caulfield said.

Regarding the draw at Eamonn Deacy Park, Caulfield rued several missed chances, but his side are still top of the table.

“Yeah, it was a helter-skelter game. The first half we weren’t that good, Galway had a lot of possession, played really well, probably only had one chance but in the bigger scheme of things, there wasn’t much in the first half.

“At the same time, we’re disappointed because we had three glorious chances to win the game [in the second half].”

Trevor Murray