The Bluebirds continued their pre-season fixtures with a trip to Cork City, and Brian Barry-Murphy spoke to the press after his side ran out victorious in his hometown.
"The main objective for us was to get everybody through 45 minutes each." Brian began. "We want to increase the fitness levels as much as possible, off the back of what was a very stern examination on Saturday.
"I'm very pleased with the application of the players here, and very hopeful that the game exposure we’ve had over the past four days will improve us a lot. The players and myself are very clear on what we have to do, and we see that as an exciting thing because we know what challenge awaits us.
"The players in the first half played really well, and the energy in the team, the application physically, was probably the most important part of tonight. I’m not just saying it for the sake of it, we're nowhere near where we want to be, and I see that as a positive.
"The game on Saturday was a very difficult game physically, so it took a lot out of us, and I would much prefer that than an easy start to pre-season and not quite knowing where we are. We know exactly where we are, and I think it is really healthy."
City again played two separate XI’s in each half and gave opportunities to Academy prospects, including Rob Tankiewicz, who scored a brace.
Brian said: "Robert is a very talented young player and has a good mentality. He has a good feeling of knowing when to arrive into the box to score goals. He is improving a lot and knows how much work he had to do to be the player we want him to be."
With a second pre-season fixture now ticked off, Brian spoke about the squad's plans for the rest of the week at our Cork training base.
"Today was a small step on the way to where we know we will have to be come start of the season. It is a very intense part of pre-season for us as we now go through the gears in terms of footballing content, and I will be looking at upping the level in the coming days and weeks.
"We are very grateful to be here; the facilities are incredible and I'm very grateful to the Club for supporting us in coming here, so we don’t want to waste that by having too much downtime. The rest of the week is about pushing on now. We have a lot of things that we need to cover and we will go through it step by step."
Brian of course began his footballing career with Cork City, and concluded with a comment on his return to Turner's Cross.
"It is a very special place for me, but on a professional level I knew the game would help us to where we want to go. They are having a great season themselves, we're very grateful for the test they provided and wish them all the best for the rest of the season."