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Sporting a tan from Cork City's recent training camp in Colina Verde, John Caulfield spoke of the benefits to his team of the trip to Portugal.

The extended training time given to his squad is something that he hopes will stand to his side as City get ready to resume their title charge in the second half of the season.

“Yeah Portugal was fantastic for us," said Caulfield on his return to media duties ahead of Friday's away game against Shamrock Rovers. "It allowed us to train three times a day including the gym. They are a fantastic group of guys and they worked hard from when they arrived on Monday right up until the end. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all three sessions, while Friday was two sessions before we came back.

“The lads worked hard and we had nearly everybody training hard and it was very good for team bonding.”

Trips to foreign lands are expensive on League of Ireland clubs, but this trip didn’t cost City anything thanks to donations from local publican Kieran Horgan, of the Bishopstown Bar, and ex player Brian Carey. The players and management staff even paid for their own flights so as not to take away from the club's budget. These contributions ensured that the Rebel Army had the best of preparation ahead of the trip to Tallaght.

And despite a good training camp over the mid-season break, it is clear that Caulfield is itching to get back into the cut and thrust of the football season, knowing it will be a tough challenge to claim all three points in Dublin on Friday night.

“We’re back since Monday and we are looking forward to Rovers," said the City boss. "It’s good that we have Rovers as if it was a smaller team then not everybody would be as focused on the clash and eyes could be taken off the ball. It’s a big match and Pat Fenlon will look at it that if they can beat us they are within five [points] of us and it gives them an outside chance of the league.

“Tallaght is never an easy venue and you have to perform. From my point of view it’s great to have a game of that quality coming up and we are looking forward to it and we will need to be on our game.”

John Kavanagh is recovering well and trained everyday over in Portugal, with Caulfield eyeing up the Fulham friendly on July 9th as a potential return date. However, Michael McSweeney and Karl Sheppard are carrying knocks which make them major doubts for the game against Rovers.

A local radio presenter asked Caulfield could he see a positive knock-on effect of the European Championships, in which Irish fans have excelled and garnered international praise from various media organisations, transferring across to the League of Ireland. Connacht rugby, who are currently riding the crest of a wave, were used as something clubs here can aspire to in the future if they got their respective houses in order. The City manager was sceptical.

“Our league has zero marketing, really disappointing when you see the amount of players that are in the Irish team who have come through our league," said Caulfield. "There doesn’t seem to be a want or enthusiasm to promote our league. I suppose the bigger picture is that we need to set up a proper committee to improve the league to advise what needs to be done.

“I look at other sports, Connacht rugby. Ten or 12 years ago nobody wanted them but they went out to the schools and you look at them now, getting 6,000 people to games.

“This week the amount of people that have asked me 'Are ye still on holidays?' unaware of the big game on Friday just makes its own point.”