Title in reach for Cork City as Bray battle for playoffs

One more win will seal it for Cork City, regardless of UCD’s result tonight against Cobh Ramblers. The Leesiders are on the verge of securing the First Division title as they face Bray Wanderers this evening at the Carlisle Grounds (7.45pm).

Cork City remain 20 points clear at the top of the table with seven games remaining, and with a maximum of 21 points available, UCD would need to win all remaining games and hope City lose all. Should Cork City only manage a mere one point from their final seven games, the Rebel Army would likely still prevail on goal difference.

Any doubts around which team will become champion have already been put to rest. Whether that will be mathematically confirmed this evening or remain an assumption until a later date lies in the hands of Barry Robson’s side.

Wanderers will be desperate to get a result this evening and bolster their push for second in the table. The Seagulls currently sit four points behind UCD, and four ahead of sixth-place Kerry.

The fight for the playoff spots is incredibly tight this season. UCD should have enough given the eight-point advantage they have over Kerry; but six points is all that separates third from seventh.

Bray come into this one off the back of consecutive away defeats, first losing 4-2 against Longford Town before last week suffering a 2-1 defeat from a losing position against Athlone Town. Bray have won only one of their past five games across all competitions, a 5-0 hammering they dished out at home to Finn Harps.

The pressure is rising on the Seagulls though, and the league leaders have proven very tough to crack for their fellow First Division opponents this year, as Wexford found out again last week.

On that occasion, the Leesiders were down both Conor Drinan and Greg Bolger, the former sidelined with a thigh issue, while Bolger’s absence was due to bereavement, after his father Thomas passed away.

Robson confirmed Bolger would be back this week – the midfielder was afforded more time if needed – while Drinan is less likely to feature against Bray.

The absences of the pair forced Robson to go with three at the back against Wexford, given Niall O’Keeffe’s move to midfield further reduced options in the full-back department. Chris N’Sa’s work permit issues have persisted – the Canadian defender is yet to feature – but Joe Aidoo was brought on in the win over Wexford to make his debut after signing in the summer window.

“Yeah, he's a good player,” Robson said of Aidoo. “It's a totally different culture for Joe. It was one where we took him over from the other side of the world and for Joe to have a look at us and us to have a look at Joe.

You can tell he's a talented boy. You can tell he can play.

“But he's a totally different type of footballer and he would need a good bit of time to try and get into it. But he's been good in training. He's a really good kid and you can see he's got talent.” 

Goal threat

City will once again be looking to their attack – which has been very prolific this season – in finding a way through Bray. Last time out, Seani Maguire and Cillian Murphy each struck the net and provided the assists for one other against Wexford, as Murphy put up another very impressive showing.

“We've actually got a pretty good model in place for him at the moment,” Robson said. “He's getting a speed day, he's getting a strength day in him, then he's getting a match prep and then he's getting a game.

“We're giving him the weekend so he's kind of getting three days away from it. But the days that we're hitting him, we're hitting him hard. I think that's helping his physicality. 

I know how to develop players, I know how to take them through, and the Friday night games are helping him.

“We know his numbers he's hitting, we know his acceleration, deceleration, we know his sprint distance,” he added. “It's all very good. We need to get him probably a bit [more] bulked up with the gym work, but that takes time as well.

“But we also need to be careful with him this year, and the games have been really important for him. We're really pleased how he's coming along and he's developing exactly how we want him to.”