Match Preview: City vs Kerry

It’s another Munster derby at Turner’s Cross this Friday night as Cork City host Colin Healy’s Kerry FC in the SSE Airtricity Men’s First Division. The clash pits together two of the league’s most in form teams, both sides having won six of their last eight matches.  

Since these two clubs last faced each other on the 4th of May, City are the only team to have accumulated more points than Kerry – who have taken 23 from a possible 36. After that 1-0 defeat at Mounthawk Park on the May Bank Holiday, the Rebel Army embarked on a run of 9 successive victories and eight clean sheets on the spin. That streak was curtailed by losses to Longford and UCD, before Barry Robson’s men regained their momentum with back-to-back triumphs against Finn Harps (3-0) and Athlone Town (3-2) over the latest long weekend.  

Ruairi Keating’s goalscoring form has been a standout of recent months for the Corkmen, his brace against Athlone made it 13 goals in his last 11 games (including cup) and taking him level with Hans Mpongo (who also netted on Monday evening) at the top of the division’s scoring charts.  

With the gap to second place at 20 points ahead of the last game of the third round of fixtures, a victory on Friday night for the Rebel Army would mean that just three more wins thereafter would guarantee the league title – and that is if Bray Wanderers or UCD win all their remaining games. 

The Manager’s Words: 

At full-time in the Athlone game, Robson stressed the priority of securing the title as quickly and efficiently as possible; “we need to win the league, nobody takes it easy here, we need to make sure this is mathematically done.” The City boss also praised his players for “flying out of the blocks” and for their approach on Monday given the nature of the quick turnaround time after only returning from Donegal at 6am on Saturday morning.  

On the eve of Kerry’s arrival to Turner’s Cross, Robson’s opposite number in the dugout, ex-City player Colin Healy, stated that his team “have nothing to fear” ahead of facing the league leaders given their recent form. “Good for them”, Robson responded, “we’re 20 points clear so we’ve got nothing to fear ourselves.” 

With regards to player availability for Friday night, the Scot discussed Seani Maguire’s reintegration in the team following his steady return from a calf injury and that “we still haven’t decided” whether or not he will start against Kerry: “we’re just trying to be careful with him, we don’t want the injury repeating, so we don’t need to rush him right now.  

Where the new signings are concerned, Robson touched on Joe Aidoo’s situation as he acclimatises to life in Irish football: “it’s a total culture change for him, he’s going to be here until end of season so he can have a look at us and we can have a look at him, he’s a really talented player but it’s a totally different game to what he’s used to. You can see the quality he’s got, it’ll take him a while to settle in, so let’s give joe a bit of time and see can he adapt to this type of football.”  

The other new boy, Chris N’sa, is “back in the building”, however ongoing visa issues mean that he will not be eligible in time to feature on Friday night. Greg Bolger, meanwhile, will return from the suspension that ruled him out of Monday’s action.  

Head-to-Head: 

This will be the third meeting between these two clubs so far this season in the league. The previous two were both tight encounters, the first of which being possibly one of the games of the First Division season as a whole. The Kingdom club took a 2-0 lead into the break at Turner’s Cross, before a second half turnaround and a Maguire hat-trick completed a 4-2 triumph for City, the final goals coming in the 90th and 92nd minute.  

A month later, City were on the wrong end of a 1-0 scoreline in Tralee, which was the first ever positive result gained by Kerry FC against the Leesiders since their inception. That was the Kingdom’s 14th match and only their second win. They have almost trebled their points tally in the 12 games since then, climbing into the final play-off spot in the process.  

For Cork City, meanwhile, another victory on Friday night would bring confirmation of a return to the Premier Division to within touching distance, which is something that Barry Robson will be keen to use as an extra motivational factor ahead of the penultimate home Munster Derby of the campaign. Kick off at Turner’s Cross is at 7:45.