‘CARELESS’ LILIES SHIP FOUR AGAINST CORK
CORK CITY showed battling qualities that Liam Miller would have been proud of as they battled back from two goals down at half-time to retain the President’s Cup against their old rivals Dundalk at Oriel Park yesterday.
A first half double from Ronan Murray in blizzard-like conditions looked like it had put one hand on the cup for Stephen Kenny’s side but a few strong words from John Caulfield had the desired effect as Karl Sheppard, Barry McNamee, Kieran Sadlier and Graham Cummins all found the net after the restart to make it seven matches without defeat against the Louth men.
Speaking afterwards, Caulfield admitted that the game paled in significance compared to how it felt losing someone so young, and called on Cork City as a whole to come out for today’s funeral to ‘give Liam a proper tribute and send off.’
‘While we get wound up at times about the football, the reality is that your health is everything,’ said Caulfield.
‘It’s very difficult but whatever about today, tomorrow is more important that we show the support to his family and give Liam the tribute that he deserves.
‘Nothing will ease it for his family but it’s important that the club and the people of Cork come out in force to show their respect to him.’
Dundalk bossed the opening exchanges in wintry conditions and took a deserved lead in the 19th minute. A ball in from the left towards Michael Duffy broke to Murray who made no mistake from close range.
The second goal arrived in similar fashion on 40 minutes with Dane Massey’s cross from the left not dealt with and Murray was on hand to punish the mistake.
Cork were a different side in the second half and pulled a goal back within four minutes of the restart. A flick on by Cummins wasn’t dealt with by Chris Shields and Gary Rogers, allowing substitute Karl Sheppard to nip in and score.
McNamee then equalised on 56 minutes with a header from a Sadlier cross. Sadlier then put Cork ahead on 79 minutes with a stunning strike from 25 yards before helping to seal the game two minutes later with a cross that Cummins turned home.
Afterwards, Dundalk boss Kenny blasted his side as ‘careless’ for throwing away their half-time advantage.
‘To be 2-0 up and lose 4-2 is careless in the extreme,’ he said.
‘We had a lot of players missing today and a lot of players playing out of position. To be fair Cork capitalised on it and took their goals very well so we can have no complaints.’