City boss blames play acting, scheduling of game

Liam Murphy was clearly an unhappy man after his side's Intertoto Cup hopes fell asunder on Saturday evening in Latvia.
The Leesiders collapsed to a poor Metalurgs team in Daugava, losing 2-1 in the second leg and 3-1 on aggregate. Murphy did not hide his disgust at the Latvians' behaviour during the game on Saturday.

"Five times they had the stretcher carriers on the field for treatment to their players," he told David O'Reilly of the Irish Sun. "The carry-on was too theatrical for me altogether."

City striker James Mulligan was red carded in the second half not long after he came on as a substitute, and though some City supporters have criticised the Dubliner, Murphy defended his player.

"The turning point in the match was the sending off of James Mulligan five minutes before half-time because when he came on he was full of beans and looked like he might do something for us in attack," said Murphy.

"Some of the Latvians were making a meal out of nothing - but that was typical of them. While I don't begrudge them their win, it disappointed me the way they play-acted and feigned injury and the way they tried to boss the Bulgarian referee."

While Metalurgs look forward to facing Herenveen of Holland in the next round, City have to prepare for the rather meaningless Super Cup, which kicks off on Wednesday.

In future seasons, eircom League teams - like the Latvians this year - will be playing their European football in the middle of their season, and Murphy believes the fact that Cork lacked match practice militated against their chances of progressing.

"It's no exaggeration to say that if we played the same opposition in a month or six weeks time, I have no doubt we would win the game," he said.

"The Latvians certainly had the edge in terms of match practice, but it was still very disappointing for us to lose to a limited team. I cannot see them progressing much further in this year's Interoto Cup.

"I just hope we learn something from our experiences in Latvia and we can use that to our benefit when our own League season kicks off in August," he added.

Maybe he'll learn not to be scared of average east european teams in future?

Our strength in europe has been our home form & maybe in future we'll have a go @ teams & try to get a decent victory @ home first?

Hopefully he won't get another chance to manage a team in Europe. One season is enough with Gunther, someone professional would be good then.

Spot on Neil. Murphy's negative and ignorant tactics and team selection, allied to Mulligans stupidity cost us a place in the second round. I don't care if Mulligan made contact or not, he had a go and gave the guy the chance to fake it, that's stupid in itself. Gunther OUT!

Can any of youse tell me the line out for saturday? None of the mediya seem to have any info..... :rolleyes:

Devine, Carey, Daly, Coughlan, Horgan, Caulfield (Mulligan), Buckley (O'Grady), Bennett, Herrick, Cahill, Hartigan (Morley).

How did Bennett and O'Grady play?

I reckon (from the little I've seen of him) that Bennett could command a regular spot in the team.

Bennett looks good - he covered alot of ground in midfield and rarely made a mistake. IMO, himself and Dave Moore were the top two from the reserves last season.

Considering it was O'Grady's first time playing with the rest of them he looked alright too. It will probably take a while to settle in but he didn't really do anything wrong when he came on.

Maybe gunther should blame his negative 4-5-1 against average opposition with a striker who couldnt beat Pat Dolan in a sprint.....
Bennet does look very good doesent he....The end is nigh for Mark"pass the ball backwards" Herrick if O'grady and Bennet have a few good games.....
as for Hartigol.......take him out against a wall and shoot him.

How's about blaming Jimmy the Gnome for getting sent off after seven minutes on the pitch?
I'd also like to have a shot at the board for scheduling the $eltic game the week of the second round. It surely played on the minds of the City players.
While the diving was annoying, does anyone remember an article in the paper about City needing "to be streetwise"? Perhaps this article just referred to crossing Liepaja's streets.

He's right about the scheduling of the game though. I mean the
nerve of Uefa not asking Cork when they wanted the game played. Why not give Cork a bye or three until November when they'd be fitter for God's sake? Uefa are behaving like 'little Englanders' towards our Gunther.:D