Cork City boss Tim Clancy on why Cathal O'Sullivan is a special talent

CATHAL O’Sullivan continued his impressive start for Cork City in his breakthrough season on Friday night, after scoring his first senior goal against Bray Wanderers. 

At this moment the 17-year-old can do no wrong and his manager Tim Clancy was full of praise for his young gun.

"We can take loads of positives out of the first half. From an attacking point of view, we were getting joy down the sides. We had two more different scorers in the team. It’s something we spoke about in preseason, that there is quality and a lot of goals in the team and it’s great to see Muzz [Sean Murray] get his first goal of the season and little Sully too.

Just look at the finish 🤤#CCFC84 || #LOI pic.twitter.com/vF4TUAkhdq

— Cork City FC (@CorkCityFC) March 15, 2024

“I’ve spoken to Cathal about how I want him to be more positive and get at players, and if he gives the ball away, we don’t mind, because we want him to be more energetic and positive, and he’s got so much ability. Last week, he got his first assist of the season, and he’s added to that by getting his first goal now. He’s flying, and he’s doing really well for us and we are looking forward to the progress he makes." 

Despite an impressive first half against Bray, Clancy feels the team have shown their quality in previous games.

"I think we were good up in Finn Harps in the second half considering the conditions. I thought we were very good last week, the way we got the two goals in the second half and controlled the game. I felt the first half this week was good and then subconsciously you start protecting a 2-0 lead. 

"Even though we didn’t carry as much threat going forward or had as much of the ball, we still looked dangerous on the counterattack. If you look at the game back, Brad Wade has made one save low down to his left from a second phase from a corner. Apart from that I think they have had one shot that has just gone past the post from outside the box. We restricted them to very few chances." 

BOOST

Clancy was full of praise for the way his side defended and is confident of having a few of the injured players returning in the coming weeks.

"That’s four clean sheets for Brad, the defence, the midfield and even from the front as well so it’s something to build on and the more clean sheets we can keep, the better it is for us. It relieves the pressure for the attacking players because they know that if we are going to be tight at the back, that they can nearly miss one or two chances.

They can always rely on a clean sheet and it will take the pressure off them for some of the finishes.

“At the minute we still have a lot of injuries. If you look at the injury list that we have, we have players nearly back from it. 

"Bagsy [Cian Bargary] is very close. Darragh Crowley is very close. He’s in full contact training now. He just needs to be signed off to go back in playing games. You’ve Cian Murphy, who will be back in next week. 

"You’ve Conor Drinan who is only a couple of weeks away. Malik (Dijksteel) is a bit away. Barry Coffey is obviously suspended. 

"So you have six players with a lot of experience there that we are doing without at the minute, and it shows the quality of the young lads that they are stepping in and no one’s really mentioned the players we don’t have available."