AFTER securing their third victory in eight days against Bray Wanderers, Cork City manager Colin Healy praised the work ethic of his players. 

City scored an impressive nine goals and conceded just one in their matches against Cobh Ramblers, Treaty United and Bray and the City manager highlighted the role every player plays in the team.

"I think we scored some very good goals and defended well for most of the game. It was a sloppy goal to give away but overall I’m delighted with the three points especially away from home.

“The effort each place gives is incredible. Just look at our two centre-forwards. The work rate of Keats (Ruairi Keating) and Murph [Cian Murphy] is never questionable. 

"They press defenders which allows us to defend from the front. We ask our midfielders to be aggressive on the press. At the back; you can see they enjoy defending.

“But it does all start from the front. If we don’t defend from the front then the rest of the side would have to drop off and defend deeper. We do try to make it difficult for other teams to break us down. 

"When we don’t have the ball we need to be compact and organised so that teams don’t play through us. If they do play through us, then we will have our second line waiting to defend the box and defend the goal so that we don’t concede any goals.

We come up against different sides and different systems each week which means sometimes you have to tweak things. That might mean we have to change things but the players adapt to it very well. 

"If they are unsure of anything, they aren’t afraid of asking the question. We then will go through it with the players and make sure that they know their jobs.” 

New signing Louis Britton wasn't registered in time to play but Healy believes that Britton will bring added competition up front.

“We brought in Louis during the week. He done very well at Waterford. He is a very good player. 

"He will add competition for places in the team. We have had three excellent centre-forwards and he will add to that now. I think we have options all over the pitch. Even with the lads we were able to bring on. The likes of Ronan Hurley, Dylan (McGlade), Darragh Crowley, Ally Gilchrist and Matt (Healy). Everyone is back now and we have a very strong squad."

City face Stoke City in a friendly next week and Healy sees the game against the English side as a good opportunity for those players coming back from injury to get more game time.

“We were careful with the lads coming back from injury tonight. The last thing you want to do is put a player in when they aren’t fully ready and possible set the player back. Next week will be good for giving lads more of an opportunity to get more minutes into them.”