Caulfield is expecting City exodus

JOHN Caulfield is braced for a rebuilding job with Cork City after falling short in his efforts to oversee a third successive FAI Cup final triumph. With a number of key players out of contract, including Kieran Sadlier, Barry McNamee and Steven Beattie, Caulfield won’t have time to take a breather after yesterday’s 2-1 defeat. ‘We’ll have to build a new team, like we did last year when four of the cup final team left to play in England,’ Cualfield said. ‘I’d imagine almost all the out-of-contract players will be moving on,’ added Caulfield who confirmed that top scorer Sadlier had offers from clubs in England. The losing manager saluted Dundalk on their double after a final that was in the balance at 1-1 deep into the second half before a rare error by Shane Griffin gifted Dundalk possession, from which Patrick McEleney scored the winner. ‘He’s disappointed. He was having a very good game to then; they’d taken [John] Mountney off. On another day, you make a mistake and someone covers you, but this time McEleney punished us.’ The Cork boss felt it was ‘an even match’, but insisted his side wouldn’t dwell on the loss. ‘Congratulations to Dundalk. We take it (defeat), shake hands and move on,’ said Caulfield who felt City could reflect on a decent season. ‘I know I lot of people don’t have a grá for Cork, that doesn’t bother me. We’ve had five incredible years. It’s a results business and we’ve been in the top two for the past five seasons.’