City go in search of Easter wins

Cork City will look to get their season back on track over the next week with two fixtures over the Easter weekend.

First up is an away trip to Waterford on Friday night, followed by Sligo Rovers at Turner's Cross on Bank Holiday Monday.

City have endured a torrid week on the pitch. They had to settle for a draw against St Pat's thanks to a 90th minute equaliser which cancelled out Graham Cummins' first half penalty.

Things went from bad to worse on Monday night when UCD overturned City's 1-0 halftime lead to win the match 2-1 thanks to two goals in the final five minutes of the game. Garry Comerford also saw red for City after receiving yellow card in each half, with City having to play for ten men for the final 15 mins.

Speaking to CorkCity.ie Caulfield lamented the loss: “We're going through a very difficult spell at the moment, we were 1-0 up, UCD to be fair had a bit of possession but never looked like scoring. Obviously, Garry got sent off – it was one of those nights, I think it was a poor night for the officials. It was a night where every tackle, we were penalised.

“Garry got booked in the first half, he had won the ball, and then obviously the second half, he got another yellow so it was frustrating be down to ten men. But we have to give credit to UCD, obviously they won the game in the end but Mark (McNulty) made a mistake, a very soft mistake, for the first goal and the penalty at the end was soul destroying. We're on a bad run at the moment, we just have to get out of it, it was one of those night where a lot of the decisions were going against us, it was a frustrating night.”

Caulfield made four changes from the team that drew with St Pat's; Sean McLoughlin, Shane Griffin, Gary Boylan and James Tilley all started in place of Alan Bennett, Kevin O’Connor, Conor McCormack and Cian Murphy.

Caulfield continued: “We need to get players back, Conor McCormack pulled out before kick-off, obviously Alan Bennett isn't right, Karl Sheppard is a loss and Daire O'Connor...at the moment we're not in a position where we can kill teams off. Maybe by Friday hopefully we'll have Conor back but it's a tight call, another very difficult game.”

Kick-off on Friday night's game against Waterford is at 7.45pm while kick-off against Sligo Rovers on Easter Monday at Turner's Cross is at 5pm.