Tim Clancy on Cork City’s preseason schedule and Carrigaline in Munster Senior Cup 

With two games down in their preseason schedule, Cork City move on to a meeting with Carrigaline United in the Round of 16 in the Munster Senior Cup at Ballea Park on Friday, kick-off 7:45pm.

This will be the team’s third outing and it follows bouts with Bohemians in Bishopstown and Treaty United at Mayfield Park.

The Rebel Army lost to the Gypsies and got the better of their Limerick based rivals with a blended selection featuring returning players and those emerging from the academy.

All of this is positive to Tim Clancy, who is happy to be back out and preparing for life in the Premier Division with City.

“The most important thing is minutes in the legs,” he accessed the club’s preseason campaign.

“It’s a different type of fitness when you are playing games as opposed to running and doing your preseason work. 

"The positive is that there are no injuries after the two games and Keats (Ruairi Keating) has got a couple of goals there and Malen (Malik Dijksteel) and Josh [Fitzpatrick] got good goal[s] there yesterday [against Bohemians]. 

"So yeah, it is really good to get the games started again.

“We obviously had a mixture of U20s and first team players for both games so it is good to have a look at some of the younger lads. 

"I thought Finn Dalton was excellent at right back there today. 

"He done really well. Some of the young lads did really well in both games as well.” 

Now it is all about the game with Carrigaline United, which means playing against a side in the middle of their season.

The Munster Senior League First Division side are in the mix for promotion and looking to reach the semi-finals of the cup the first time since 2020, when they narrowly lost to Rockmount on home soil.

Clancy isn’t focusing on the opposition or outside narratives, just his own players as they look to start the year with a victory.

The manager has only overseen one Munster Senior Cup campaign, and it involved underage coach Stephen Birmingham taking charge of an U20s selection against Wilton United in Mayfield.

A number of future first team players featured that day, a group that includes Harvey Skieters and Cathal O’Sullivan.

There was no reward for faith on the day as Wilton United buckled down got the win on penalties.

Clancy is hoping to take a similar approach to Friday’s fixture as it allows the coach to look at the U20s up close in a senior competitive environment.

“We’ll probably use that for the U20s to see how they are in a competitive game,” he told The Echo.

“We done it last year which was a brilliant game against Wilton and it went to penalties. 

"Listen, we looked at the younger lads and Matthew Kiernan shone in that game and then he started the season for us at left-back. 

"Of course he broke his leg in the first game but he was one of the shining lights.

“The very good academy lads that we have played that we had here. 

"Aaran Healy played a few games after seeing him off the back of the Wilton game. 

"We’ll probably do something similar on Friday. 

"We have a couple of games which means more minutes for everyone.”