They got there — but Cork can’t afford to sit back and admire view
ONE of the more peculiar sights of this Premier Division season came in the Black Lion pub in Inchicore back in April.
Peter Ridsdale, the former Leeds United chairman who now acts as an advisor to Preston North End’s owner and has considerable say on transfers, walked in and approached the bar to order a pot of tea for him and his associate.
It was a Friday evening and just a few hundred feet up the road, St Patrick’s Athletic were pre-paring to host Cork City. The pub wasn’t exactly heaving but Ridsdale stuck out like a sore thumb. The Black Lion is a world away for someone used to the pre-match vagaries of the Premier League elite, but Ridsdale was there on business and not to savour the delights of their pint and burger special.
This was the first time both he and then Preston manager Simon Grayson watched Cork striker Seán Maguire and the wheels of a transfer were soon put in motion. It is why, just before the mid-season break, while everyone else at Cork City was basking in the afterglow of a scintillating performance and 3-0 win over Dundalk, manager John Caulfield knew that he could not get ahead of himself.
An 18-point gap at the top of the table may have been established, but Caulfield knew he was about to lose both Maguire and left-back Kevin O’Connor to Preston. The deal for the former Dundalk player, who left for England with 20 Premier Division goals in as many games, was done and dusted in the build-up to that clash and the Cork boss, as well as those alongside him at the negotiating table, pulled off a masterstroke by keeping the Republic of Ireland international for an additional three weeks.
Caulfield bought himself some time to get reinforcements — Ronan Murray of Galway United was a target which failed to materialise — and the arrival of Kieran Sadlier from Sligo Rovers was a boost, even if he was unable to inspire the same sort of threat in the attacking third as his predecessor.
Caulfield has already rebuilt one Cork team in order to reach the same heights domestically as Dundalk and with the Premier Division title finally secured, he faces the same challenge once again to maintain the club’s presence at the top of the tree. Karl Sheppard, Steven Beattie, Greg Bolger and Stephen Dooley are all understood to have options elsewhere and are under consideration, while centre-back Ryan Delaney will return to Burton Albion after his successful loan spell. He formed a tremendous partnership with Alan Bennett and while the 36-yearold insists he feels capable of one more season, that is another key area which will require reinforcements. The backdrop to all of this, though, is the uncertainty — publicly at least — surrounding Caulfield’s own future. His contract runs out after the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup final on November 5 and the sooner that is resolved the better. Indeed, the fact he has successfully pushed for the club’s board to offer 52-week contracts to all players from December 1 would suggest it will happen soon. It needs to. Cork have reached the summit so the last thing they need now is to be playing catch-up on their rivals.