Cork City off again on north-west passage

GIVEN CORK has spawned a number of club names from Hibernians, Celtic, Alberts, United to, in its current guise, City, a temporary change to Cork Columbus might not be unreasonable for the great exploration that is their 1995-96 season.

This week alone, they will clock up well over 1,000 miles, the centrepiece of a demanding three-game schedule being tonight's FAI League Cup final first-leg tie at Terryland Park against Galway United.

The comings and goings of last season's relegation-promotion affairs ensured that Cork's nearest away league game would be 160 miles away. Thus their 14 away league trips would see them spend almost 6,000 miles on the road. Invariably, sod's law has given them four trips out of five so far in the League Cup.

Their only home game was against, of all people, Cobh. Round-robin trips to Waterford and Kilkenny were compounded by away ties in the knockout stages against St Patrick's and Bohemians. Yet, this prohibitive fixture list has not deterred them and 3-0 and 2-0 wins against St Patrick's and Bohemians in the League Cup have been supplemented by five successive away wins in the league.

Perhaps all this travelling has had a bonding effect on the squad, engendering a togetherness among Dave Barry's remodelled team of local experience and youth. Last. Saturday's win against Finn Harps augmented victories in Derry and Sligo, a north-west hat-trick unlikely to be emulated by anyone else this season.

In all three cases, Barry points out that the club directors have facilitated his request for prematch and post-match overnight stays. "It would be unfair to ask the players to travel up on the days of the game," he reasons.

Nevertheless, having got this far, Barry wants Cork to emulate the League Cup wins of 1988 and '95. "I feel it's very important for the club. Given what happened last season, any trophy would be a real bonus for us. I want to win it."

With Noel Mooney continuing to deputise for the injured Phil Harrington in goal, and the 19-year-old Brian Walsh deputising for Colin O'Brien in a reshuffled midfield, Barry must further amend his midfield because of Kelvin Flanagan's first of a three-game suspension. Derek Coughlan, recently recovered from glandular fever, could make a first appearance in two months.

Similarly, for Galway, Martin Lawlor's three-game suspension compounds the groin injury which has regular goalkeeper Eddie Van Boxtel giving way to Gabriel Higgins. Dennis Clarke enjoys more options than most in the First Division, with either Billy Clery or Donal Murray direct replacements for Lawlor, or Gareth Beatty coming in at left-back with Peter Carpenter switching inside.

Back-to-back first-division defeats by Drogheda have dented Galway's previous improvement, and Clarke accepts they should be doing better than their current standing of fifth but maintains "we haven't been getting the results our play deserves." Promotion remains the priority, but "in so far as it's one of the three major trophies, the League Cup, it would be a great confidence booster."