Damien Duff prepares for “dangerous” Cork City | OneFootball

The Champions look to get back to winning ways when newly promoted Cork City visit Tolka Park on Friday night. (7:45pm KO, live on LOITV)

The Reds suffered their first defeat of the season a week ago as Drogheda United edged a tense affair by the narrowest of margins. Warren Davis’ early goal ended up being enough to hand the FAI Cup winners all three points.

Duff delivered a squad update to ShelbourneFC.ie after training on Thursday at the AUL and reflected on what has been a difficult week:

“We’re down bodies, I won’t give a list but there’s been a bad virus in the group. The lads haven’t trained properly, in and out, and haven’t been able to do much. We’d usually do our walkthrough today, but couldn’t. We’ll name an XI at 6pm tomorrow based on who is actually fit and sitting in front of us in the meeting room and ready to play at that point.”

Despite a difficult seven days on and off the pitch, Duff remains upbeat thanks to the outlook of his assistant manager Joey O’Brien:

“Rough week, the result, the bug, but I had a chat with Joe about it – that’s why he’s brilliant for me. Last Friday was one of our worst nights, one of our worst results in four years I felt, then you go from that to the week we’ve had with illness around the camp. But you speak to Joe, and he saw it as utter dominance – he’s focused on the many moments, many chances, and the fact that on another night, we win that game. I think you can take a bit of both: the bitter disappointment I feel, the frustration of the disrupted week, but also the optimism Joe has. We should have a big reaction from those who do make it to tomorrow, illness permitting, of course.”

Cork City have registered a win, a loss, and two draws from their first four games, while their visit to Tallaght was scrapped at the last minute due to a downpour that washed away any hope of getting that game played on the original date. Assessing the threats of Tim Clancy’s side, Duff said:

“They’re a very dangerous team, we referenced them a lot in meetings. There’s a lot of quality in the First Division, and they back themselves to play, cut through, and hurt teams. They’ve done that. They might be missing Maguire and Bolger – big players – but Keating, Alex Nolan, and Malik Dijksteel look really good. They can punish teams. Any hint of disrespect, and we’ll soon find out the hard way.”

Duff has encouraged his players to put their stamp on the game tomorrow and bring their own personality:

“I’ve gone along with Joe’s way of thinking – there’s so much to be positive about. When has a Shels team ever dominated like we have in the last three games? We’ve played five very difficult games, and the next step is getting used to facing teams that try to frustrate us. It’s about bringing that cutting edge, what I mean by personality, players showing their skills, their profiles, and contributing different things in an attacking sense.

“I put together a little video from the last two weeks of the Premier League. There were 47 goals scored, and when you take out corners, penalties, and free kicks, 55% of them came from players being bold, taking risks, and showing personality. Take Boydy’s goal on the first night – a brilliant long-range strike. Evan’s goal in the same game was more of a worked pattern, but showed real personality with the finish. Then against Galway, a blind cross, Evan just trusting himself and putting his own stamp on the game.

“When we look at our half-chances and moments, I think you can tell a lot from that. Of course, we need structure, guys knowing where to stand and how to move, but look at someone like Kerr. Why was he the best player the last day? Because from an attacking sense, he brought his own personality, his own unique x-factor, and he’ll continue to do that. That will make the difference.”

The Reds have reached the midway point of the first round of games. Assessing what their report card for the first five games of the season would say, Duff said:

“We’re down on points compared to this time last year, but we’re putting in better performances. Last year, we didn’t dominate possession, we soaked up pressure, but in key moments, we had a cutting edge and won games 1-0 or 2-1. Now, the coin has flipped, and it’s something we have to get used to.

“At times last week, and even over the last year, when we’ve come up against low blocks, the lads haven’t enjoyed trying to break them down. But we have to embrace that pressure, adapt quickly, and get our heads around it.”

The Reds have taken eight points from their first five games. Duff isn’t sure their points return quite does justice to some of the performances:

“Have the results matched the performances? I don’t think so. It’s a results business, but it’s similar to the run-in last season. We hadn’t won in a while, but before we started getting results, we felt we had found our team. Then came Pats at home and Rovers away – we didn’t win, but we liked what we saw, and we went into those final games with full confidence that if we kept putting those performances in, the results would turn. No Shels supporter will forget how that turned out.

“It’s the exact same picture now in Round 1 as it was in Round 4 last season. Are the results where we’d like them to be? No, but we like a lot of what we see, performance-wise.”