Fenn still searching for first win
It’s crunch time for Cork City FC who welcome a relegation-threatened Finn Harps to Turner’s Cross on Friday, with both sides looking for a vital win to secure their SSE Airtrictiy Premier Division status for 2020.
Although City are in the better position of the two with a game in hand and seven points to spare in eighth place, with six matches remaining, every point is precious to both the home and away sides coming in to the final home stretch of the season.
Without a home win in over four months, Neale Fenn, who himself has yet to secure a win as City boss, sees this Friday’s match as the perfect opportunity to finally break a bad spell of results for City.
“It’s a big pressure game and it’s going to be a very tough game. I know Finn Harps well from last season (as Longford Town boss), we obviously played them a few times and it won’t be easy they won’t let us rest. They’ll make it difficult for us and they’re a big threat from set pieces but we worked on little pieces and we should be able to win the game.”
He continued: “We’ll try and enforce our game on them. They’re coming to our home ground but we need to be better at the other end (in defence) so we’ve worked on little pieces and we’re full of confidence going into the game. We just need to win, we’re not worried about above us or below us, we just need a win.”
Although it was another loss, the manner of the defeat to league leaders Dundalk two weeks ago has given Fenn and his player’s reasonable reason to be confident as they welcome Finn Harps to Turner’s Cross, despite the four-month run of winless games at the stadium.
“That’s an amazing stat. I’ve had two goes at it since I’ve been in here and I haven’t won, but we’ve got a good chance this Friday, everything is there for us, we just need to go out and perform. The game we played against Dundalk, we obviously had to approach that differently to other games, so we’ll approach this game how we think we can win. I was pleased with everyone, especially the younger players - Alex Byrne came in and played 90 minutes and was excellent so it gives us another option at midfield.”
After a season that most will quickly want to forget, attention will soon turn to the arrival and departure of players with Fenn eager to bring a few players he has worked with to the club. Only three senior players have contracts for next year. It is up to the City players, he says, to impress and retain their places at the club in the remaining matches.
“It’s no secret that there are players here who probably will be looking to leave anyway. Their contracts are up, so they will want to go and I want to bring some of my own players here that I know will do what I want them to do. There will be others we’ll want to keep, and will try to keep, but certainly there should be players, that if they want to stay, they should be playing for their contract.”
Cork City FC play Finn Harps at Turner’s Cross on Friday 20 September. Kick-off is at 7.45pm.