14 November 2017
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Cork City FC are delighted to announce that Mark McNulty has signed a new, two-year contract with the club.
The goalkeeper has been in superb form once again this season, with his crucial shoot-out save teeing up Kieran Sadlier’s winning penalty in the FAI Cup Final, and speaking to CorkCityFC.ie, McNulty said: “I have been talking to John about it for a while, so I am delighted to get it done. After the way things went last season, I think there are good times ahead for Cork City. We have Champions League football to look forward to, we want to retain the League and the FAI Cup, go after the EA Sports Cup, and we also have the Munster Senior Cup, President’s Cup… We have a lot to look forward to next year!”
“It is all about experience and, once you are doing the job on the pitch, I don’t think age matters. I am looking forward to next season and can’t wait to get started. John is bringing in quality players and, knowing him, he is still not finished. We had the best defence in the league last season and bringing quality players can only make us better again. Whoever is picked, I look forward to playing with them, because they are all top players.”
City boss John Caulfield praised the contribution the City keeper has made during his time at the club, saying: “There was never a question that Nults wouldn’t be staying on. Since we came in as the management team, he has played every single league game bar one, which shows how consistent he is. We all saw what a phenomenal performance he had in the cup final, saving the penalty, but his overall display was excellent as well. You look at his clean sheet record over the last four years; he has never been below 16, which is half the games.”
“Mark is looking forward to next season and he has been an instrumental part of the last four years, so we are happy with him and he is happy to be here. In himself and Alan Bennett, we have two very experienced, local guys, who know the club inside out and pass on good habits to all of the players who come into this club. The majority of our team are aged from 20 to 26, you need a couple of wise heads around the training ground and the dressing room, and those two are fantastic. Nults’ performances have shown he is the top goalkeeper in the country.”
“We have tried to do a lot of work very quickly this year. A lot of players indicated that they wanted to come to Cork City and we had to make sure that the players we brought in were the right ones to fit in with the group that is here. The squad is shaping up quickly and, over the next couple of weeks, we hope to have finalised the majority of the team.”
