Uefa's decision a blow to Cork

Cork City v Red Star Belgrade Turner's Cross, 8.0:  That Uefa's decision to impose a two-match ban on Danny Murphy and Joe Gamble was broadly expected but the news has done little to soften the blow within the Cork City camp with manager Damien Richardson describing yesterday's news from Nyon as "a kick in the teeth" ahead of this evening's sell-out Uefa Champions League second round qualifier against Red Star Belgrade.

Richardson was still pursuing ways in which he might have the decision overturned last night but the reality is that the pair will now miss both games leaving City desperately short of experience in key areas of the field against a side possessing an alarming amount of quality.

"It's certainly a big blow to the team in terms of our chances of beating Red Star but there's something more important at stake here: justice, and that clearly hasn't been served by this decision.

"We sent them photographs that clearly showed the Apollon players like a band of Red Indians surrounding the two lads howling and hollering," he continued.

"All they were short of was tomahawks. It was disgraceful and now the lads are going to miss the most important games in the history of the club. They are devastated and I have to say that I have nothing but sympathy for them."

While George O'Callaghan is also ruled out of the two games pending the resolution of his future at the club, John O'Flynn came through training yesterday and now looks certain to feature.

The question facing Richardson, however, is whether to chance starting with his most prolific striker or keep him on the bench in the hope that he might make an impact when introduced at some point in the second half.

"We'll see whether he has any reaction to the training tomorrow but he's done well over the last few days and it's good that there does at least seem to be a decision to be made.

"He's an important player for us, particularly at this level, and it would be a boost if is able to play a major part in the game."

With Billy Woods certain to drop to left back in order to fill the gap left by Murphy, there are two spaces to be filled in midfield where Cillian Lordan, Admir Softic and Brian McCarthy are all in contention.

"All you can say is that the bad news for Danny and Joe is their good fortune. They've all been making a case in training for a place in the team and, again, it's something that I'll make a final decision on in the run up to kick-off time."

Softic looks the most likely to play alongside Colin O'Brien in central midfield with Lordan out on the left but all three are young and Richardson must weigh up which two of the three he feels will cope with a very big occasion at Turner's Cross.

At least as importantly, he must seek to strike the right balance between containing a powerful looking Red Star side that won the double in Serbia and Montenegro last season thanks largely to a strike-rate of comfortably more than two goals a game.

The squad contains a handful of international players including three who were with the national team at the World Cup finals last month.

Best known, and certainly most loved back at home, is Nikola Zigic, a 25-year-old striker, who scored one of only two goals in Germany when he grabbed the opener against the Ivory Coast in Munich.

The striker is tall, fairly quick, particularly good in the air and adept at carving out opportunities for team-mates - something he amply demonstrated when playing alongside Mateja Kezman during the later part of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

For his efforts at club level he twice won the country's player of the year title, in 2003 and last year, and the club have made much of the fact that they have recently tied him down to a new, long-term contract.

Red Star coach, Dusan Bajevic, observed yesterday: "It is almost certain that a lot of their (Cork's) attention will go into neutralising Zigic, which should be an opportunity for other players to get their names on the score-sheet."

The 57-year-old was generally respectful of Cork's capabilities but suggested that his side would seek to obtain the sort of result that would put them firmly in the driving seat when the two sides meet back in "Marakana" next week.

Club president Dragan Stojkovic may have tempted fate a little when he predicted that the team is good enough to remain involved in Europe until the springtime but given Cork's problems it would be hard to imagine that the winners of the European Cup's most disappointing final ever back in 1991 would not be somewhat confident of making the third qualifying round on this occasion.

Richardson, for his part, points to the fact that this will be the first competitive outing of the season for Red Star - or Crvena Zvezda as they are increasingly known these days - while predicting that his side can trouble anyone on their day.

Given the quality of the absentees, though, he will be under no illusions that quite a few of his players will have to be at their very best this evening if they are to lay the foundations for what would be quite an upset next Wednesday night in the Serbian capital.