thejollyrodger
30/09/2005, 8:08 AM
here's what the papers say
Richardson stays defiant
Emmet Malone at Turner's Cross
Uefa Cup first round, second leg / Cork City 1 Slavia Prague 2 (Slavia won 4-1 on aggregate): Just as his players had been over 90 minutes of football in which there had rarely been a let-up, Damien Richardson was defiant in defeat, with the Cork City manager declaring that the 2-1 loss by Slavia Prague was just another part of his side's education in the harsh realities of European football.
"Look, the reality is that this tie was lost in the away leg, but I think there was plenty to be positive about tonight," he said. "I thought we showed tremendous spirit out there from beginning to end. Slavia are a decent side and they deserve to be in the group stages of the Uefa Cup, but they had them on the back foot out there like nobody has before this season and they leave here knowing that they've been in one hell of a battle.
"In the end," he said, "you need to be a little streetwise to win games in Europe and we were just lacking in that department. It's about having good players certainly, it's about ability, but it's about footballing intelligence as well.
"You need to be able to take command of situations, and that's where we fell down. You could see the way they crowded the referee, made a lot of things and set the agenda. That comes with experience and we don't have it at this level, but I intend to ensure that we get it. Getting this far in the competition has been of huge benefit to us and it's vital that we don't allow that to go to waste now.
"I don't want this to be viewed as the end of something for Cork City in Europe, it's the beginning of something."
Richardson felt a draw on the night would have ben a fairer reflection of his side's contribution but had no complaints about the overall outcome. The Czechs had been strong and physical, but his players had matched them on that score even if they didn't quite have the know-how to make the required breakthrough early on when there was still the prospect of progression.
"When they were a goal behind in the second half our players knew that they could get ripped apart if they pressed forward in search of goals and got it wrong, but that's what they sought to do and that took courage. There was no attempt at damage limitation, they went for it out there and they very nearly got the draw that they deserved.
"To go as close as they did they had to assert themselves physically because that was part of Slavia's game but that's what they did. Every one of them imposed themselves in the second half and I thought they did themselves proud.
"We may have lost, but I thought we showed tonight just how far we have come in the 11 years since we last played them."
© The Irish Times
From the indo
Streetwise Slavia end Cork dream as inexperience tells
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=94&si=1479310&issue_id=13075
CORK CITY 1
SLAVIA PRAGUE 2
Slavia win 4-1 on agg
CORK CITY were given another glimpse of the gap they have to close if they want to reach the group stages of a major European competition.
Their European odyssey, which was teetering on the brink of extinction after they lost the first leg in Prague 2-0, was clinically extinguished at Turner's Cross last night.
Cork were put out of their misery early when Slavia scored in the 27th minute and they added a second just after the hour to put the tie firmly beyond Damien Richardson's side.
Cork also failed to do themselves a favour for next year's European campaign by failing to get the draw they needed to ensure that they are seeded in the preliminary round draw.
Richardson said before this tie that he changed his thinking on the game after Cork played Slavia in 1994 and after this tie he and his players now know what they have to do if they want to make an even bigger impact in Europe.
"Cork City are now a club of consequence and we stand of the verge of something," said Richardson.
"It is no good us leaving Europe this year and not learning the most valuable lesson of all that at this stage you have to be streetwise.
"You have to be able to command situations," he added. Roared on by 6,000 passionate and partisan fans Cork tore out of the traps and only a poor first touch from John O'Flynn prevented them from opening the scoring after six minutes.
Cork also had two early penalty appeals turned down and Slavia showed their extremely potent threat on the counter-attack by breaking on both occasions and putting the ball past Mick Devine - only to have both efforts disallowed for offside.
The goal that ended Cork's hopes of becoming the first Irish side to make it through three rounds in Europe came in the 27th minute when Dusan Svento cut in from the left and set up skipper Karel Pitak for a low drive from the edge of the box to the corner of the net.
They hammered another nail in the Cork coffin on 63 minutes when the excellent Stanislav Vlcek split the Cork defence by playing a one-two with Lukas Jarolim and although Devine parried his shot Vlcek scored from the rebound. To their credit, even after they went a goal behind, Cork never gave up trying and certainly kept Matus Kozacik in the Slavia goal busy.
Minutes after Fenn had a goal disallowed for offside Cork finally gained some reward for their efforts in the 66th minute when Martin Zboncak was adjudged to have pulled Fenn inside the box and George O'Callaghan drilled home the resultant penalty.
O'Flynn twice went close to grabbing a deserved equaliser but, in the end, although they showed plenty of spirit they weren't able to match a Slavia side that was as intimidating physically as they were technically.
And as news filtered through of Roy Keane's decision to quit Manchester United at the end of the season, Richardson immediately quelled any thoughts of a return to Leeside for Cork's favourite son.
"I would imagine Roy wouldn't be ready for Cork City and Cork City wouldn't be ready for Roy.It would be too small an area for someone like Roy. I think he has to go to a very big city where he can gain some privacy and even some anonymity, if that's possible.
"But Cork City are going we are going to attract big players because we have got a very good team."
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; O'Donovan, O'Halloran (Gamble 59), O'Callaghan, Kearney (Coughlan 77); Fenn (Bruton 68), O'Flynn.
SLAVIA PRAGUE: Kozacik; Krajcik, Latka, Suchy, Zboncak; Pitak, Jarolim, Hrdlicka (Cernoch 90), Svento; Vlcek (Kratochvil 90), Fort (Pesir 82).
REF: P Luba (Switzerland).
Gerry McDermott
at Turner's Cross
Richardson stays defiant
Emmet Malone at Turner's Cross
Uefa Cup first round, second leg / Cork City 1 Slavia Prague 2 (Slavia won 4-1 on aggregate): Just as his players had been over 90 minutes of football in which there had rarely been a let-up, Damien Richardson was defiant in defeat, with the Cork City manager declaring that the 2-1 loss by Slavia Prague was just another part of his side's education in the harsh realities of European football.
"Look, the reality is that this tie was lost in the away leg, but I think there was plenty to be positive about tonight," he said. "I thought we showed tremendous spirit out there from beginning to end. Slavia are a decent side and they deserve to be in the group stages of the Uefa Cup, but they had them on the back foot out there like nobody has before this season and they leave here knowing that they've been in one hell of a battle.
"In the end," he said, "you need to be a little streetwise to win games in Europe and we were just lacking in that department. It's about having good players certainly, it's about ability, but it's about footballing intelligence as well.
"You need to be able to take command of situations, and that's where we fell down. You could see the way they crowded the referee, made a lot of things and set the agenda. That comes with experience and we don't have it at this level, but I intend to ensure that we get it. Getting this far in the competition has been of huge benefit to us and it's vital that we don't allow that to go to waste now.
"I don't want this to be viewed as the end of something for Cork City in Europe, it's the beginning of something."
Richardson felt a draw on the night would have ben a fairer reflection of his side's contribution but had no complaints about the overall outcome. The Czechs had been strong and physical, but his players had matched them on that score even if they didn't quite have the know-how to make the required breakthrough early on when there was still the prospect of progression.
"When they were a goal behind in the second half our players knew that they could get ripped apart if they pressed forward in search of goals and got it wrong, but that's what they sought to do and that took courage. There was no attempt at damage limitation, they went for it out there and they very nearly got the draw that they deserved.
"To go as close as they did they had to assert themselves physically because that was part of Slavia's game but that's what they did. Every one of them imposed themselves in the second half and I thought they did themselves proud.
"We may have lost, but I thought we showed tonight just how far we have come in the 11 years since we last played them."
© The Irish Times
From the indo
Streetwise Slavia end Cork dream as inexperience tells
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=94&si=1479310&issue_id=13075
CORK CITY 1
SLAVIA PRAGUE 2
Slavia win 4-1 on agg
CORK CITY were given another glimpse of the gap they have to close if they want to reach the group stages of a major European competition.
Their European odyssey, which was teetering on the brink of extinction after they lost the first leg in Prague 2-0, was clinically extinguished at Turner's Cross last night.
Cork were put out of their misery early when Slavia scored in the 27th minute and they added a second just after the hour to put the tie firmly beyond Damien Richardson's side.
Cork also failed to do themselves a favour for next year's European campaign by failing to get the draw they needed to ensure that they are seeded in the preliminary round draw.
Richardson said before this tie that he changed his thinking on the game after Cork played Slavia in 1994 and after this tie he and his players now know what they have to do if they want to make an even bigger impact in Europe.
"Cork City are now a club of consequence and we stand of the verge of something," said Richardson.
"It is no good us leaving Europe this year and not learning the most valuable lesson of all that at this stage you have to be streetwise.
"You have to be able to command situations," he added. Roared on by 6,000 passionate and partisan fans Cork tore out of the traps and only a poor first touch from John O'Flynn prevented them from opening the scoring after six minutes.
Cork also had two early penalty appeals turned down and Slavia showed their extremely potent threat on the counter-attack by breaking on both occasions and putting the ball past Mick Devine - only to have both efforts disallowed for offside.
The goal that ended Cork's hopes of becoming the first Irish side to make it through three rounds in Europe came in the 27th minute when Dusan Svento cut in from the left and set up skipper Karel Pitak for a low drive from the edge of the box to the corner of the net.
They hammered another nail in the Cork coffin on 63 minutes when the excellent Stanislav Vlcek split the Cork defence by playing a one-two with Lukas Jarolim and although Devine parried his shot Vlcek scored from the rebound. To their credit, even after they went a goal behind, Cork never gave up trying and certainly kept Matus Kozacik in the Slavia goal busy.
Minutes after Fenn had a goal disallowed for offside Cork finally gained some reward for their efforts in the 66th minute when Martin Zboncak was adjudged to have pulled Fenn inside the box and George O'Callaghan drilled home the resultant penalty.
O'Flynn twice went close to grabbing a deserved equaliser but, in the end, although they showed plenty of spirit they weren't able to match a Slavia side that was as intimidating physically as they were technically.
And as news filtered through of Roy Keane's decision to quit Manchester United at the end of the season, Richardson immediately quelled any thoughts of a return to Leeside for Cork's favourite son.
"I would imagine Roy wouldn't be ready for Cork City and Cork City wouldn't be ready for Roy.It would be too small an area for someone like Roy. I think he has to go to a very big city where he can gain some privacy and even some anonymity, if that's possible.
"But Cork City are going we are going to attract big players because we have got a very good team."
CORK CITY: Devine; Horgan, Bennett, Murray, Murphy; O'Donovan, O'Halloran (Gamble 59), O'Callaghan, Kearney (Coughlan 77); Fenn (Bruton 68), O'Flynn.
SLAVIA PRAGUE: Kozacik; Krajcik, Latka, Suchy, Zboncak; Pitak, Jarolim, Hrdlicka (Cernoch 90), Svento; Vlcek (Kratochvil 90), Fort (Pesir 82).
REF: P Luba (Switzerland).
Gerry McDermott
at Turner's Cross