That Cork City must give late tests to a few of their first-team regulars before this evening's game at the Markets Field will be of little enough consolation to Tommy Barrett with the Limerick manager obliged to lift his side after the hefty beating at the Brandywell for the visit of the champions.
"Cork are the best team in the league," says the 38-year-old whose side also lost heavily to Dundalk a couple of weeks back, "so the very least we will need is a lot of hard work and application, to try to win as many of the duels as possible.
“It’s important we get an reaction like the one we did after the match in Oriel Park although, to be fair, Cork are a much better side than Bray Wanderers.”
Barrett will be without Mark O'Sullivan while Eoin Wearen and Barry Maguire may also miss out after having come off injured during recent games. John Caulfield reckons both Alan Bennett and Steven Beattie are "50-50" to be fit while Garry Buckley is a doubt due to minor illness although the midfielder could well feature.
Striker Graham Cummins’s early season form was recognised yesterday when he was named as the new season’s first Airtricity/SWAI Player of the Month.
“It’s been a bit of a dream start for me coming back to Cork City, getting on the scoresheet so early and the team going so well. I’ve been really enjoying my football,” says the 30-year-old.
“Losing to Dundalk hurt. We could hear them in their dressing room after the game because ours was so quiet but we knew what we needed to do was to come back and I think it shows the character of the team that we didn’t let that one defeat affect us.”
Dundalk , though, have lost their scoring touch again since sticking eight past Limerick. They drew 0-0 at St Pat's and then passed up countless chances to beat City by more than a single goal. But they have kept five clean sheets going into the game against joint leaders Waterford in which goalkeeper Gary Rogers will make his 500th league appearance.
Defensively sound
“It has been a mixed bag to start the season,” he says. “We are a little bit frustrated that we haven’t scored as many goals as we can but if we can keep it defensively sound I think it will come; there’s too much quality in this squad for it not to.”
Ismahil Akinade looks set to be back involved for the visitors after having missed the win over bohemians with a groin strain. Bastian Hery is in with a shout too but Rory Feely misses the game through injury.
Rovers will look to get back to winning ways against St Patrick’s Athletic in Tallaght but Stephen Bradley must wait to see whether Ally Gilchrist is available for the game with the defender looking doubtful.
On the brighter side Greg Bolger, Ethan Boyle and Trevor Clarke are all reckoned to be fit and available again to face a St Pat’s side that has looked vastly improved over the past few weeks, an impression that was underlined on Monday against Dundalk with Liam Buckley’s men defending strongly in the first half then having chances to take all three points in the second.
Killian Brennan and Thomas Byrne are back in the reckoning for the visitors while Jamie Lennon faces a late test.
Across the city, Bohemians’ Kevin Devaney is again likely to be sidelined by the Achilles strain that kept him out of the Waterford game but Sligo are in better shape for the trip to Dalymount with Mitchell Beeney, Pat McClean and Regan Donelon all in contention to start. Jack Keaveney is a doubt for the game while John Mahon is ruled out.
In the night's other top-flight game, Derry City take on a Bray Wanderers side still looking for its first win of the campaign. After seeing his side go down badly at Rovers last week, Kenny Shiels says the home crowd played a key part in propelling them to the 5-0 victory over Limerick. The hosts are still without a string of players but Shiels does have David Hopkirk available again before City take a bit of break prompted by postponed matches.
