Cork City assistant manager John Cotter has praised the professionalism of Jimmy Keohane following his winner against Sligo Rovers on Tuesday evening. Keohane grabbed the only goal of the game, just three minutes after emerging from the substitute’s
Cork City assistant manager John Cotter has praised the professionalism of Jimmy Keohane following his winner against Sligo Rovers on Tuesday evening.
Keohane grabbed the only goal of the game, just three minutes after emerging from the substitute’s bench, to earn the champions a crucial victory in their pursuit of Dundalk at the top of the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division.
And speaking to reporters shortly after full time, Cotter, who was deputising for the suspended John Caulfield, hailed the impact made by the substitutes on the night although he was reluctant to claim he was behind those decisions.
“It was a collective decision to be honest,” insisted Cotter.
“Any subs we make it’s always a collective thing so as I said it’s the players themselves who have to take the credit.
“They’re the ones who got out on the pitch so they deserve the credit for it.
"They’re the ones who are out there making things happen and that’s what you look from them, to have an impact and make things happen and luckily tonight Josh (O'Hanlon), Jimmy (Keohane) and Aaron (Barry) made an impact on the game.
“Jimmy’s a great lad and we’ve seen him do that every day in training. He’s a great striker of the ball, left foot, right foot and luckily tonight he had a bit of composure.
“The keeper made a save from him on Friday night but he had the composure tonight and luckily it went into the bottom corner for him which is great for Jimmy because he is as good a lad as you can meet.
“He’s a great trainer, the best professional you will meet and it’s great to see players like that get the plaudits and he deserves the credit he will get from tonight.”
Frustrations appeared to grow amongst the crowd during this narrow victory as the side failed to produce the type of attacking football that they have grown accustomed to over the past couple of seasons.
But while Cotter admitted he understood the reasons why they became anxious, he was pleased the club secured their seventh consecutive clean sheet at Turner’s Cross in all competitions so far this season.
“The crowd is going to get anxious, that’s fair enough that happens at every level” he added.
“But the players have to keep doing the right things and hopefully that will pay off and luckily tonight it did.
“You’ll always be nervous, there’s no doubt about that but I always fancied we would have a chance and luckily it fell to Jimmy he had a bit of composure, took a good touch finished it to the corner.
“But clean sheets win you games, to be honest. We’ve played five home league games here now and we’ve won the five without conceding a goal so look clean sheets are what win you games and win you titles.
"So that’s what we have to do, keep defending well and we’ll always fancy ourselves to score.
“It’s a great three points, a massive three points really. We probably didn’t play particularly well but we dug in showed unbelievable character and the boys that came off the bench made a good impact on the game for us and luckily Jimmy came on and scored a great goal for us.”
