Tim Clancy takes lessons from Cork City defeat to Cobh ahead of first league game

For Cork City manager Tim Clancy, a defeat to Cobh Ramblers in the Munster Senior Cup quarter-finals was more of a learning experience than a cause for regret.

That’s because everything is leading towards Friday’s return to the League of Ireland Premier Division and a meeting with Galway United at Turner’s Cross.

That doesn’t make it any easier, especially after City led at half-time through a Ruairi Keating goal following a low Cathal O’Sullivan ball into the area.

Clancy’s issues come from the second half, when Cobh took control and snatched the win with a late brace by David Bosnjak.

“First half — there were lots of really pleasing things and there were lots of good patterns and a good counter-attacking goal,” he said.

“Cathal [O’Sullivan] makes a good run down the side and has a good shot on him and the other centre-forward follows it in. A few good spells in possession during the first half. We looked dangerous with Cathal hitting the crossbar as well.

“Second half, after we made a few changes, we put players maybe where they were unnatural and lost a bit of shape in the game when Cathal went into the centre of midfield and Greg [Bolger] came off. Again, we want to look after Greg with the season coming up. We lost a little bit of our shape and got punished for our mistakes with the goals.

“It’s on an astro as well where it was a firm ground — we’re going from very soft grounds to obviously a good surface but it was very competitive.

“I know a lot of players in their dressing room. Really good players as well. It was a really good test and the second half is one we can look back on and certainly improve a few things.”

Clancy knows where things went wrong, with the winner standing out in his mind as former City captain Cian Coleman kept the ball alive by the bye-line before freeing up Luka Le Bervet.

The forward then set up Bosnjak for a simple right-footed finish in the 89th minute.

“They scored twice — the ball stayed right on the line and we probably didn’t react to it,” Clancy added.

“I thought we gave the ball up a bit too easily in the second half. We sat maybe a little bit too deep in possession and stopped threatening them high up the pitch. But look, it. 

It’s good that it happens now rather than on Friday."

City were the better team during the first 45 minutes, with a number of chances falling their way.

The first one saw a stunning strike by O’Sullivan hit the crossbar, and this was one of many moments by a team that kept possession from kick-off.

Cobh soaked up the pressure and wrestled control after the break, a change spurred on by the arrival of Bosnjak as a substitute.

“I thought the way they played in the second half, they did a lot of huffing and puffing without creating a lot of chances. I can’t think of TT [Tien Troost] making many saves. We still carried the threat down the far end. Our final ball was probably a little bit off if I’m honest. Plenty to learn from.

“But that is pre-season out of the way. We picked up a couple of injuries along the way. But again, I think there was a lot of quality on the pitch there tonight and we take the positives of the first half.”

OPTIONS

One thing that the coach knows going into next Friday’s game is that there is no planned set team for the coming season.

Instead, Clancy wants to rotate so that his side are reactive to the opposition and how they want to play.

“There’s no set 11 at the club. There are a lot of strong players. We’ll not be playing the same 11 consecutively quite a lot next season. There’s different styles that we are playing against. Different types of game. It’ll be more or less a squad game instead of the same 11 starters every week.

“Galway on the first day of the season is going to be a completely different game to Tallaght on the second day of the season. We’ll pick teams that are most likely to get a result on the night.”