Stuart Ashton takes charge of his first league game tonight, as Cork City entertain Bohemians with 3 crucial points on offer to both sides.
The Rebel Army
Last week's 2-1 defeat in Thomond Park was the last straw for Tommy Dunne, who parted company with the club the morning after. It was Cork's 6th league defeat in the last 8 outings. Ashton has already been in charge of the FAI Cup win over Kilbarrack United on Monday. He is best known for being the manager of Cork's U19's ''Double-Double'' in league and cup over the last 2 seasons.
Defeat for the Leesiders tonight, coupled with other results, could leave the Munster side just 1 point off the relegation playoff.
Speaking to www.corkcityfc.ie, First Team Coach Billy Woods said that he is hoping for a large crowd and a
good performance tomorrow night:
“Obviously since Owen Heary has come
in, Bohs have had some good performances. They beat Bray, drew with
Drogheda and were very unfortunate to lose to UCD last week. It will be a
very tough game for us, but at this point in the season we need to
start winning games. We are looking for a big performance from our
players in front of what will be hopefully be a good crowd.”
Colin Healy has returned from a knee injury, but there are doubts over
the availability of Ian Turner, John Dunleavy and Neal Horgan. Darren
Dennehy, Kevin Burns and Kevin Murray are
definitely ruled out. Kalen Spillane serves the last game of his suspension , Daryl Horgan the first of his.
The Gypsies
Bohs are looking to recover from a poor performance last Friday, where they were defeated by UCD 3-1, despite having taken the lead. It put a 4 point gap between the sides. Bohemians sit bottom of the Premier Division, 2 points off nearest rivals Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers, a win tonight would see them move off the bottom temporarily.
Manager Owen Heary scored in this fixture in the second weekend of the season, and speaking to www.bohemiansfc.com he took hope from his team’s performance. “We created chances, we
got a lot of bodies forward, and UCD never threatened us in open play. We scored early on, we were in control of the game, and we had
another chance soon afterwards. If we had got the goal later to go
2-all, I’m sure we would have gone on and won the game.”
Heary is
confident his players’ efforts will yield results. “The fans could see
last week that the players are working hard and playing for the shirt.
We have to play to win,”
Midfielders Dave Mulcahy and Ryan McEvoy return from injury but Chris
Lyons (bruised ribs), Andy Mulligan (hamstring), Stephen Doran (ankle)
and Keith Buckley (suspended) are not available.
Stats:
In both games between the teams this season so far, Bohemians have gone 1-0 up, but then lost 2-1.
Should City win tonight, they will complete a clean sweep over the Phibsboro club, the first since 2005.
On average this fixture produces 2 goals per game
Bohemians's last win in Turner's Cross was in 2009
Prediction: Pressure on both managers, the crowd should help Cork to the victory. Sticking with the score of Cork City 2-1 Bohemians
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