Barry Robson has admitted that tying star striker Seani Maguire down to a new deal was top of his to do list since taking charge of Cork City.
And just basing that objective solely on Maguire’s performance in Wednesday’s 4-1 friendly victory over Kerry at Corinthians Park, you can see why it was Robson’s number one priority.
Just 48 hours after it was officially announced that he had agreed a one-year extension to his contract that had two-years remaining, therefore ending Shamrock Rovers’ attempts to sign him in the process, Maguire showed his poacher’s instincts when firing home from close-range while he also showcased his quality when dropping deeper to get on the ball against the Kingdom.
“From the minute I came in here, the first thing I did, the first thing on my to-do list was to get Seani tied up,” began Robson, who also saw Fiacre Kelleher score twice before an own goal completed the rout against Colin Healy’s men.
“I didn’t want him going anywhere. I wanted the club to show their intent and keeping someone like Seani Maguire shows intent.
“He’s a terrific player, you can see it out there today and he’ll hopefully score some goals for us this season.
“We’ll mix it up, we’ll mix it up. Seani’s a player that can play up the top end of the pitch, he can play in a number 10 role, he can play with a bit of freedom.
“We just have to find the right places where we can utilise him that’s going to cause opposition, different opposition, different systems, different things that we are going to come up against and hopefully find the right areas where we can get him in positions to hurt teams.”
So now that Maguire’s future has been resolved, what is next on Robson’s to do list?
“Well, I think a lot of it is assessing the squad and I’ve been doing that over the last few weeks,” replied Robson, whose next outing in charge is City’s First Division opener against Treaty United at Munster FA Turner’s Cross Stadium on Friday week.
“You can see the high tempo we want to play at. There’s a lot of coaching work still needing to go into them, but they’re really receptive. They’ve done really well with that.
“They’ve worked so hard since I’ve came in. I’ve missed half the pre-season, so you’ve got to be careful, you can’t just come in and let it out.
“I had to try and come in and bed it in slowly, so I didn’t get any injuries, but they’ve been great.
“That (signing more players) is something we’re looking at at the moment. We’ve got some positions that we do believe is key, but that’s one for further down the line.
“It’s definitely something we want to do if we can find the right player to help us.”
One player edging closer to completing his exit is Cathal O’Sullivan, who was watching on as City defeated Kerry, as he is expected to officially join Preston North End in the coming days.
“We’re just waiting to see where everyone is on that. We’ve got other things that have been a priority at the moment for me and other players, but we’ll let you know what’s happening on that in due course,” concluded Robson.
