Caulfield Cork City are stronger now than we were last season

Cork City manager: John Caulfield.

AHEAD of the start of the new league season this weekend, and with Cork City FC away to Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on Saturday, manager John Caulfield believes that this season’s squad is an improvement from last year’s, which finished second in the league.

‘I think we have a very decent bunch of players and I think our strength should be better than last year,’ Caulfield said.

‘Our team should be able to play better than last year, but you just don’t know. You need every fella to work hard and I suppose the unique thing about us last year was that we were down to the bare bones and every fella gave his heart and soul for the cause and the supporters could see that.

‘This year we have brought in players to address certain areas that we needed to address and things have gone reasonably ok. We haven’t set the place alight in pre-season, but as I keep saying you don’t win anything in pre-season and we just have to see how the lads settle down and how the new players settle in.

‘On paper we have a better team and a better squad than last year, but the game isn’t played on paper, we have to go out and perform and that is the challenge for us. I am confident that we can rise to that challenge, but we need everyone in Cork to get right behind us from the start.’