Cork City manager John Caulfield remains steadfast in his belief that he is the man to turn around the club’s recent run of poor form.
City have gone eight Premier Division games without a win, the most recent being the 1-1 draw with Finn Harps last night, but Caulfield still feels that the current management team – which has guided the club to one league title, two FAI Cups and four second-placed finishes – can lead the revival.
“At the end of the day, the bottom line is that we have worked incredibly hard, the management team have had five unbelievable years, all of a sudden are they not good enough?” he asked.
“The goalposts changed, we changed the scenario within the club at the start of the year, we didn’t want to invest as much, so things have changed and we have to work within that.
“Does that say that the management team that has led and brought players through and competed and won trophies and made money for the club over the last five years, all of a sudden have become bad? I don’t think so.
“I think we’ve fantastic people, highly qualified people, all working extremely hard, but we are going through a difficult time.
“It’s up to us to rally the lads, if their confidence is down, you have to get it up and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
As to how the poor results impact on him personally, Caulfield doesn’t sugar-coat the effect.
“It’s incredibly difficult,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I’m the manager of the club and I have to show leadership.
“We’ve had many good days, which we’ve enjoyed; we’ve had blips and we’re in our most difficult period at the moment.
“The bottom line is that when you win you don’t get carried away and when you lose you keep a level head with the management and go through things.”
“But it is difficult, as an ex-player and supporter myself, there’s nobody more sick for the supporters than myself. There’s nothing like the buzz of a win and then, as a supporter, when you lose it knocks you and you get your hopes up for the next game.
“There’s nobody that takes it to heart more than myself but I have to deal with it, it’s a difficult period. I know in the club where we’re at and what we have to do, it is difficult but I have to deal with that. That’s part of management, really.”