Veteran custodian Mark McNulty was in ebullient form when he spoke after the league leaders’ 2-1 away win against Shamrock Rovers. “I suppose we were quite lucky in a way but we worked hard at the back, we defended when we had to and when you have
Veteran custodian Mark McNulty was in ebullient form when he spoke after the league leaders’ 2-1 away win against Shamrock Rovers.
“I suppose we were quite lucky in a way but we worked hard at the back, we defended when we had to and when you have a player like Sean Maguire, anything is possible.”
McNulty, whose long clearance set-up Sean Maguire’s late run that led to the winning penalty, paid tribute to the Kilkenny man. “The man is on fire. When you have Seanie Maguire, you always have a chance. Thankfully we took that today.”
McNulty, who had no chance with Graham Burke’s spot kick for Rovers only goal, stressed the importance of the diminutive striker to the Leesiders’ title push. “Since he’s come to Cork he’s been unbelievable. He’s ripped it up. He’s the best striker in the country without a shadow of a doubt. He’s winning us games week in, week out. If he keeps scoring goals like that we’ll be there or thereabouts.
Hoops boss Stephen Bradley felt his side had dealt reasonably well with the threat from Maguire. “We worked on Sean all week. If you stop him, you stop them. We defended him really, really well all but you can’t switch off for a second. He’s a good player and we got punished.”
Bradley had an interesting view on the late penalty awarded against David Webster. “Doesn’t matter if he (Maguire) dived or not. We shouldn’t make that tackle. We’re very naïve to make that tackle.”
Bradley was frustrated by the result. “We were much the better team in the second half. We pinned them in. We battered them; we hit the crossbar. We set-up all week as to how they would play, how to play against it and how to stop them. And it worked…but two mistakes cost us the game.”
