Cork City boss admitted his new-look side will take time to fully click but praised a second-half performance that ensure they made the perfect start to the Airtrcity League Premier Division campaign.
Cork produced a laboured first 45 minutes at Turner's Cross against Bohemians on Friday night before a Sean Maguire brace on the turnaround bagged the points.
Maguire, signed from Dundalk last December, was one of five players making their competitive debuts for the Leesiders, alongside Eoghan O’Connell, Greg Bolger, Stephen Dooley and Kenny Browne.
And although it was far from the complete performance from the hosts, Caulfield saw enough in the second period to give him plenty of encouragement for the season ahead.
“It was always going to be a tough," he told RTÉ Sport. "We were lucky to hang on in the first half, we hadn’t done well. We changed things around and had a lot more intensity in the second half.
"You can't gift teams goals like that. You can't defend like that." - Keith Long
"Maguire pulled two goals out of nothing, real poacher’s goals and we needed that. Once we got the first we opened up and played some real good stuff. The second one killed the game. Overall we’re happy. We got three points in a difficult match.
"To be fair to the team they upped it in the second half, I thought we were in control and played really well. We’re working hard, it’s a new team. To start the season with three points, I’m happy with that.
"We picked the team we felt would win the match. There’s difficult decisions to be made but the most important thing for the club is that we got three points."
Bohs boss Keith Long bemoaned the sloppy defending that allowed the home team to break the deadlock, and warned his team they must eradicate the errors he described as "schoolboy stuff".
"We started the second half badly. The goals we gave away were down to bad defending. We didn't deal with it," said Long.
"We gave Cork the impetus in the game. The first half I was delighted how we played. We contained Cork. But you can't gift teams goals like that. You can't defend like that. It's basic schoolboy stuff."
