Cork City boss John Caulfield was keen to portray Dundalk as favourites for next Friday’s SSE Airtricity League Premier Division showdown, but hailed his side’s performance is keeping the pressure on the Lilywhites.
Cork moved one point clear of Dundalk at the top of the table with a game remaining after recording a 1-0 win over Bohemians at Turner's Cross on Friday.
With Dundalk only managing a 1-1 draw with Bray, the results mean the pair meet at Oriel Park next Friday for a title showdown.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport after the win over Bohs, Caulfield said that although his side would not be fancied, they would not be travelling to make up the numbers.
“We’ll head up to Dundalk next week,” Caulfield said. “Everyone thinks Dundalk’s name is on the cup, they all think they’re the best team out there. Maybe they are, but we’ll go up, we’ll have a go off them and we’ll see how we get on.”
“The crucial thing for us was we had to keep winning to put them under pressure and we have done that" - John Caulfield
Caulfield praised his side’s late surge towards potential title glory, highlighting their ability to grind out results.
He said: “The crucial thing for us was we had to keep winning to put them under pressure and we have done that. We have a lot of wins in the last six or seven weeks. We have had a lot of 1-0 wins, and we’ve dug in then, we have done brilliantly.
“We’ve had to do that to keep the pressure on. If we hadn’t done that Dundalk would have won the league by now.
“We had no chance at the start of the year. We were knocked several times during the year. Isn’t it fantastic that we’re going up to Dundalk next week and the league is at stake?”
Reflecting on the win over Bohs, Caulfield said Cork had left behind goal chances, but stressed that they had gotten the all-important three points.
“We were nervous in the first half,” he said. “We didn’t play as well [as we could have]. Bohs played quite well, but we got a goal just on the stroke of half-time.
“Conditions were difficult, but in the second half we came out and we tore into them. It would have been nice to get the second goal because we definitely created three or four good chances in the second half.
“We got the win, we have brought it to the last game of the season. That’s all you can ask [of] the lads. They’ve been tremendous.”
