Cork City FC return to home league action on Friday evening, as they welcome Athlone Town to Turner\u2019s Cross.<\/p>\n
City will be looking to bounce back from last Friday\u2019s frustrating 1-0 defeat in Stradbrook, while the visitors come into the game after an impressive 3-1 victory over Galway United on the same night.<\/p>\n
The sides last met in the second round of the FAI Cup in 2017, with City running out 7-0 winners at Turner\u2019s Cross. It will be a first league meeting between the sides since August 2014, when goals from Billy Dennehy and Mark O\u2019Sullivan earned City a point in an 2-2 draw in Athlone.<\/p>\n
Speaking during his weekly press conference, City boss Colin Healy said: \u201cThe mood has been good, training has been good, obviously we were very disappointed to have lost the game last week, but we\u2019ve had a good week and and the lads are looking forward to Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAthlone had a very good win against Galway last weekend. They\u2019re a very good side, and it\u2019ll be a very tough game on Friday night, just as every game this year will be. They\u2019ve got some very good players and a very good manager. It\u2019ll be a tough challenge on Friday night, but it\u2019s one that we\u2019re ready for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan McGlade also spoke to the media this week, and he said \u201cLooking around at the league this year, it\u2019s probably the toughest it has been in a long time. I know a lot of the lads that play for Athlone, they have a lot of experience. We\u2019ve done our homework on them, but we have to concentrate on ourselves and make sure that we perform properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can watch Dylan\u2019s press conference in full here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iZXFr33Z3IM<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n On the injury front, Healy will again be without the services of Rob Slevin & Josh Honohan, but has no fresh injury concerns after last week\u2019s match.<\/p>\n