Derek Mountfield - Managerial Career

Managerial Career

In 2000, League of Ireland team Cork City appointed former Shelbourne boss Colin Murphy (footballer) as successor to local legend Dave Barry. Colin Murphy stayed for one Super Cup game before departing to Leicester City. In the lurch, facing a UEFA Cup tie in Lausanne, the club brought in Mountfield. Mountfield had a turbulent ride in his first managerial appointment, the team lacking consistency, goals and luck. After relative success in preceding seasons crowds again dwindled as the team struggled and the increasingly unpopular Mountfield was sacked in January, after just six months in charge and a 4–0 defeat at home to St Patrick's Athletic. Liam Murphy took over and the team embarked on a 13-game unbeaten run that brought an Intertoto ticket and a tenth Munster Cup success. Mountfield is today remembered by some in Cork as a manager who was out of his depth and by others as a good manager who perhaps was ahead of his time – Cork City had not yet become a fully professional side and rumours abounded of Mountfield's unpopularity with some of the older semi-pros in the squad. Cork would finally make the leap to professionalism in a few short years, attaining the League title in 2005, with Mountfield's first signing, goalkeeper Mick Devine an integral part of the side's great defence which earned them the title.