WHEN CORK ANALYSE yesterday’s game in the cold light of day, they may point to Damien Cahalane’s 51st minute red card as the turning point.
Cahalane picked up a booking in the 26th minute for hauling down Austin Gleeson, and was dismissed in the second-half for a high tackle on Conor Gleeson.
Cork were leading by 0-15 to 1-11 when the full-back was dismissed, but without a spare defender protecting their full-back line, the Rebels were ripped apart in the next ten minutes.
By the 61st minute, the Deise had added 2-4 to their tally to move six points to the good. From that point they could sit deep and hit Cork on the break. It was the perfect scenario for Derek McGrath’s side.
If Austin Gleeson had been sent-off after pulling the helmet off Luke Meade in the 18th minute, the game might have followed a completely different path. The Cork management chose not to dwell on any refereeing decision after the game.
“I’ve got to look at them again and I won’t comment on those until I do so,” said Cork boss Kieran Kingston. “We lost Damien. There was two at the end, I didn’t see that incident at all to be honest, I don’t know what happened there but that had no bearing on the game.
“Who knows what bearing the other one had but the swings and roundabouts, they go against you some days, the go with you other days. Today they didn’t go for us and what bearing it had on the game, who knows?”
Cork selector Pat Hartnett added: “I saw the first one (yellow that Cahalane picked up), I didn’t see the second one. There’s no one more disappointed but in saying that he has been phenomenal all year for us.
“From where we came from just to acknowledge Alan Cadogan had been quite sick with cellulitis, Luke Meaade had a broken finger, (he) got a pin removed about a week ago.
“In certain areas we didn’t do ourselves justice so we have no complaints. We are delighted that justice is done and the better team won.”
Despite the disappointing end to their season, Kingston highlighted the pride he had for his players after the season they put down.
“It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge firstly our lads and what they gave us this year. At the start of the year we were totally written off, we won a Munster league, we won a Munster championship, had a good league campaign.
“But we’re greedy, we’re ambitious, we want to do more than that. We’d a right chance of doing it, I’ll be honest.
“That Cork bunch of players have been fantastic all year. They’ve done everything we’ve asked them for and we asked them to change a lot. We asked them to change a huge number of things and the culture of the way we do things in many ways. They bought into that.
“There has been a fantastic bond created between the supporters and the team and we have to acknowledge what they have done. Of course we’re disappointed. We’d love to be going further, absolutely, who wouldn’t?”
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Send those boys to Slovakia!
Zack Elbouzedi is some player MOTM from where I was sitting
@Eoin Murphy: he was excellent against Armenia as well.
@Eoin Murphy: He had a stint with WBA, I guess like Jack Byrne they will be heading back across the Irish sea again….soon!
Terrific 2nd half. Watched few of u21 games this year and they have given me hope COYBIG
I thought Lee O’Connor was terrific as well, a goal and an assist and equally worthy of MOTM.
I was roaring at the telly last night for Mick to bring Troy on in the last few minutes, really believe he could have got us something, well done Kenny and Co. The senior management need to take a leap with some of these young players, some are clearly better footballers than some regulars on the first team. Be brave Mick, we need natural strikers in the team against Slovakia
@Jimjamjim: stopped reading after roaring at the telly
@Jason Oliver: most of us watched it on telly,unfortunately we can’t all go to Dublin on a Monday night and take Tuesday off
@Jason Oliver: never read “after roaring at the telly”
@Pete mc pete: I didn’t get the impression that watching it on telly was the thing he was slagging.
Very encouraging talent in that team, and made all the better by the very smart manager. Kenny can’t take over the senior squad quick enough.
Like the new kit!
A
Such a brilliant send half performance. Ronan was like a man possessed and Parott worked so hard at tracking back. That being said they were helped by Sweden collapsing
Any chance of a look at the goals lads?
They’re all linked from this match thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/coybig/comments/dylpdn/match_thread_ireland_u21_v_sweden_u21_u21s/
If he had brought on troy and Maguire we would have qualified
@Tony O Neill: with hendrick in midfield he wouldn’t have got the ball
@Eoin Murphy:
@Tony O Neill: You must have fallen asleep. He did bring on Maguire.
This is the most excited I’ve been about a group of young Irish players since Brian Kerrs under 16s and 18s in the 90s. Especially the attacking players. To think that we had two premiership strikers missing tonight but still put out the talent we did is crazy. Crazier still is that several of them are still in their teens and could have a couple or more years in the U 21s, though I suspect a few will be fast tracked into the senior squad more regularly.
@Ger: Always good to get your perspective Ger on the matches. I’ll make a few observations from this eventful week for Ireland (all levels). Our U17s beat Israel 4-2. Our U21s beat Sweden 4-1 (7-1 over both matches with them). McCarthy stuck to relying on the same starting 11 he has used for the most part throughout the group games. And yet, probably with a stark reminder and boot up the backside, the same players who could not pass a ball or keep possession, played last night, not with huff and puff, but with confidence, belief, and dare I say, like a team who can boss a match by playing football and even entertain. The same players who looked inept against Gibraltar and Georgia months ago.
There were few poor performances. They just didn’t have that one or two players to make a difference. Whelan is limited, but hats off to the guy. He has often outshone his midfield compatriots this campaign, including Hourihane and Hendrick and McLean. He does his job given by the manager, they don’t.
Like you. I’m positive. I have some serious concerns about Moran and the U19s. They seem out of sinc with the other youth levels. McCarthy can have his March Fair and let’s see where we go from there. By then, Kenny, hopefully, will have the U21s qualified, and ready to move in. It can’t come soon enough and a clearout of at least a third of the current senior squad.
Brilliant performance in the second half! Every single player at least 8/10.
@mar: Unfortunately there are 90 minutes in a match.
Agree with alot of comments here, was at both games, best performance in a good while on Monday, left me thinking about settling for a draw in Georgia, win that game and a draw would have done us. I know people will say Denmark didn’t beat them either but we had a chance and we really didn’t go for it. I thought Browne was excellent on Monday.
As for last night the result and second half performance was very impressive, coming from 1 down and bossing the game was great to see, one person not mentioned in comments was Liam Scales, thought he was terrific when he came on.
Future looks bright
Move all u21s up to senior squad