John Cleary: Reds cards were soft but Cork's missed chances key to defeat

CORK manager John Cleary jumped to the defence of the two players sent off in yesterday’s thrilling Division 2 league game against Dublin at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, won by the Dubs by 0-18 to 2-10.

The home side lost midfielder Ian Maguire and Dublin wing-back Lee Gannon for second yellow cards early in the second half as Laois referee Seamus Mulhare incurred the wrath of the crowd of 10,232.

“Soft is being kind to it,” said Cleary. “If those type of things are going to go on to the championship, I wouldn't think that referee will get many games up in the north, if you are going to get sendings off like that.

“And both of them were fierce harsh altogether. I don't know was there a new rule in today or whatever, they didn't seem to me like any sending-offs.

“There were a lot of yellow cards, too, and it wasn’t that kind of game, not at all. When the championship starts, it will be blood and thunder. 

Every game at the start of the league, there is soft cards and soft sending-offs, and that was it today.

“But as I said, some of the decisions were a bit bizarre on both sides. I wouldn't be blaming the referee for the defeat today.” 

Despite a second loss, the Cork manager wasn’t too downcast. “We missed a lot of chances. I don't know was it 13 or 14 wides for a finish, we had seven at half-time. Some of them were shooting a small bit under pressure. 

“It’s back to the drawing board now and hopefully we can brush up on that and not miss as many the next day.

“I think we had about five goal chances and in fairness all this league we have been creating goal chances. Scored two against Kildare and while we didn't score any against Meath, we had four goal chances.

“But when you get them, you must convert a high proportion of them. We didn't. 

Ultimately, that is why we don't have the two points going home this evening.

“The lads are very disappointed inside there. We came back and I thought we deserved to get something out of it. But look, we didn’t in the end. Maybe Dublin’s bit of experience told. They got their scores maybe a slight bit easier at the end of the game.

“But look, I’d be intensely proud of the lads there. The game could’ve gone away from us after half-time and we were down to 14 men.

“They kept battling and battling and we got ourselves back in the game and look, width of a crossbar that we weren’t going home with the two points.

“But overall, there were some encouraging performances and some encouraging play. A lot of learnings today and I think that’s the big thing for us.

Last summer Dublin were far too good, not on this occasion, though, further evidence of Cork’s improvement. 

"I would hope so, yeah. I think we’re in a better position and we probably have more work done and more work done on our structure,” Cleary concluded.