John Caulfield: 'Going on to penalties, we felt we would win'

John Caulfield says Cork City’s FAI Cup victory in 2016 gave them the belief to drive on to success this year.

 

After the disappointment of finishing second to Dundalk in the league for the third consecutive season last year, City finally got one over the Lilywhites in the final game of the season.

 

Caulfield as he expressed his delight after his side beat Dundalk once again, prevailing 5-3 on penalties, to seal back to back FAI Cups and a league and cup double in 2017.

 

“It’s brilliant. We were disappointed last year that we didn’t win the league, but we won the cup and it gave us the belief to drive on,” Caulfield told extratime.ie.

 

Cork had an incredible start to the season, winning their first 12 games before being held to a 1-1 draw away to Galway United in May.

 



However they bounced back, winning their next nine games and it would take until their 23rd game of the season for Cork to fall to ther first defeat of the season, losing 1-0 at home to Bohemians.

 

Cork lost a number of players, namely top scorer Seani Maguire and defender Kevin O’Connor to Preston North End, but finally sealed the league title in their third last game with a 0-0 draw against Derry City.

 

“We thought this year that we would do well in the league and we proved that. Our start was phenomenal. To win 21 out of 22 games is incredible,” Caulfield said.

 



“And then to lose so many players but the lads got the league over the line. The cup is a bonus. We did brilliant in the cup and we got to the cup final.”

 

The final itself remained 0-0 after 90 minutes. Niclas Vemmelund’s header in the first half of extra time gave Dundalk the lead before Achille Campion’s equaliser sent the game to penalties.

 

“As you saw today, we started really well, first half we were really good, we had a couple of chances.

 

“Second half, they were controlling the game and we went behind in extra time but back we would come.

 

“It was a great goal by Campion and I suppose going on to penalties we just felt we would win at that stage so obviously to win the double is incredible,” Caulfield said.

 

Looking ahead to next season, Caulfield said there will be departures from the club, with a number of players indicating that they want to move home.

 

“We’ll wait and see. I’ll have a chat with the lads over the next few days. There are a couple of lads who have indicated that they want to move back home, because all of our players live in Cork.

 

“So we will wait and see over the next week but certainly some players are going to leave and I’m going to bring in more players. We’ll leave it that way and deal with it in the next couple of weeks.”