Danny Murphy's Cork City close out home campaign with visit from Bohs

CORK CITY’S home campaign in the Women’s National League comes to a close on Saturday evening when they welcome Bohemians to Turner’s Cross.

Having faced the sides sitting second and third in the table in the last couple of weeks, City will now be taking on the team lying in seventh which should provide them with reasons to be optimistic about giving their home fans something to cheer about.

The Rebel Army impressed but were narrowly beaten by a late goal away to Shelbourne two weeks ago but last time out they were much further from their best and were well beaten 5-0 by Peamount United at home.

In his notes in the ‘City View’ - the excellent free match programme released on the official Cork City website before every WNL home game - manager Danny Murphy called on his players to show an improved performance against the Peas having lost to the title chasers 8-1 and 7-0 in their two previous meetings this season.

But while he got an improved result, he wasn’t happy with their display and he expressed his disappointment about that when speaking to the Echo shortly after full-time last Saturday.

I’m frustrated. Over the last six or seven weeks, we have shown a good account of ourselves. 

"We have done the right things. Today I think we were well off it, really well off it,” he admitted.

“We didn’t play well but you’re not going to play well every week. If you’re not playing well, just outwork your position. I don’t think we did that today. I think we made the game very easy for them. I’m just frustrated. They’ve let themselves down more than anything else.

“I don’t know if we have the belief that we can go and beat Peamount. I think whenever we play them, we don’t believe that we can go and beat them.”

No doubt Murphy, his coaches, and his players have been working extremely hard this week in training to ensure they can bounce back from that loss.

There may be two places and a massive 18 points separating them in the league standings but City have competed well against Bohs the two times they clashed in 2022.

The first fixture saw the Leesiders emerge with a 2-1 victory back in April thanks to goals from Aoife Cronin and Becky Cassin while their previous meeting back in June saw Bohemians claim a 3-1 win in a game that City had led until the 75th minute.

While City know they can beat their rivals from the capital, they also know only their sixth win in their 26th match this season will keep alive their hopes of overtaking Sligo Rovers and earning an eighth-place finish.

“They need to stay off the pitch because we have a game on Saturday against Bohemians and it is a big game for us,” pleaded Murphy.

“It’s a game we need to get three points out of so we need people not going on the pitch because it doesn’t help us going into the game on Saturday.”