John Caulfield: 'We only need two points to win the title - everything is now in our control'

Given the state of play in domestic Irish football in the past few years, you could not have written a better script had Cork City managed to secure the league title at home to Dundalk.

It didn't pan out in the end, as Robbie Benson’s goal backed up the claims made by Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny before the game that they had no intention of being apart of a title coronation at Turner's Cross.

Although it would have been a special way for City to secure their first league title since 2005, there are still plenty of positives to be taken from the performance, which means they need only two points from their remaining four games to win the league.

City were back to the levels which they set for much of the season and which helped them go 18 points clear at the top of the table.

Dundalk were in red hot form before the game on Leeside, but Cork simply did not leave them play their brand of football for the vast majority of the game.

City manager John Caulfield had a sense of pride in his post match comments and that although it was not the ideal result for the home fans, it was a display which helped to silence those doubters who questioned their character in the post-Sean Maguire era.

“It was an absolutely phenomenal performance by the team,” Caulfield told reporters after the match.

“Our pace and our movement was fantastic for much of the game.

“At the end of the day, we are disappointed to concede at the end, but the bottom line is that we only need two points to win the title and everything now is in our control.

“The most important thing for me is that the lads who had been questioned in the last four of five weeks with some of their performances, they got back to a proper Cork City performance tonight.

“When you restrict a team like Dundalk to barely any chances on goal, bar the scrappy goal they got in the end, it showed we were back to our best tonight.”

Caulfield will now look to avenge last week's defeat to Limerick when the Munster rivals clash in Friday's FAI Cup Semi Final at Turner's Cross.