“IT WAS A mistake in hindsight,” admitted current Cork City skipper Alan Bennett recently when he recalled how they approached their last opportunity to win a double. “But at the time I was quite young and I didn’t know any different.”
Given the manner in which they won the club’s first league title in 12 years, the celebrations that followed Cork City’s 2-0 win over Derry City at Turner’s Cross on 18 November, 2005 were never likely to be restrained. On the final day of the season, Cork needed a win to be crowned Premier Division champions. A draw would suffice for Derry.
After making amends for the club’s several near misses since their inaugural title in 1993, Damien Richardson’s young team instantly became heroes on Leeside. The Celtic Tiger was still purring and there was scarcely a pub nor punter in Cork who didn’t want to show their appreciation.
With the league conquered, there was a 16-day gap until City headed to Lansdowne Road for the FAI Cup final against Drogheda United. Ample time to recover and prepare — or too much time to celebrate, depending on your outlook.
“We celebrated so much after winning the league that I wasn’t too concerned about it [the FAI Cup final],” Joe Gamble, who marshalled City’s midfield at the time, admitted to The42 in a recent interview.
“I just thought we’d beat Drogheda. That’s not being smart or complacent, I’m just being honest. We were young boys and we nearly drank Cork dry for over a week.
“I remember going down through the lobby of the hotel in Dublin on the day of the cup final and there were thousands of people there, which kind of shocked me. ‘Fucking hell, is this for us?’ I definitely didn’t realise the magnitude of winning the cup. I didn’t think it would be as big a deal as it was.”
On a miserable afternoon in Dublin, striker John O’Flynn almost give City the lead in the first half but his effort struck Drogheda’s post.
“We got a guard of honour from all the fans as we were getting on the bus to go to the stadium from the hotel,” O’Flynn recalls. “They were screaming and roaring for us. In our minds we had won it before we even got there.
“Everyone in Cork was delighted after winning the league and the celebrations went on and on. We were out nearly every night and didn’t pay for a drink anywhere.”
Roy O’Donovan, who was ruled out of the 2005 FAI Cup final due to suspension, says: “The night we won the league, no team would have beaten us. Turner’s Cross was bouncing. It still gives me goosebumps now just thinking about it. It was an incredible occasion.
“But when you win a trophy, especially in such a big sporting city like Cork, you’re kind of whisked around from event to event — schools, bars, city hall — to do different bits and pieces. The attention was taken off the cup final as a result.”
Drogheda capitalised on a subsequently lacklustre Cork City performance and thoroughly deserved their 2-0 victory, with second-half goals from Gavin Whelan and Declan ‘Fabio’ O’Brien sealing the first FAI Cup triumph in the club’s history.
“The celebrations were excessive. Mistakes were made,” Billy Woods, who played on the left wing that afternoon for City, told The42 last April. “We were the better side. But we left it behind us against Drogheda. That’s what galls me about that year. It was great to win the league but not winning the double really galls me.
“If you ask the majority of players, hand-on-heart, they’d agree with me. I don’t think we were mentally focused on it. The celebrations dragged on too far. We had a week and then a week back in. And we left it behind us.
“You think ‘we’ll get another chance’ but how often do you get the opportunity to do a double? Personally I was devastated. We got so close. You could’ve done something special in Cork, really. And we didn’t do it. When’s the next time we’ll get that close? It’s so difficult and we had an ideal opportunity and just didn’t take it.”
This Sunday, Cork City will face Louth opposition again in their bid to become the first team from Leeside to win a double since Cork Athletic in 1951. However, the circumstances are significantly different now in comparison to the situation they encountered in 2005.
Back then, Paul Doolin’s Drogheda side had yet to establish themselves as a force, having finished 26 points behind Cork City in the Premier Division. League and Setanta Sports Cup silverware followed over the next two years, and while the dynamic between the teams would soon change, City had no axe to grind with Drogheda at that stage.
There’s unlikely to be any complacency involved this weekend when City renew their intense rivalry with Dundalk. With the exception of St Patrick’s Athletic’s FAI Cup victory in 2014, the Lilywhites and Leesiders have now shared the two biggest prizes in Irish football between them for the last four years.
Cork City manager John Caulfield is also sure to have preached the importance of appropriate preparation to his players, a message which will have been echoed by the two surviving members of the 2005 squad, Alan Bennett and Mark McNulty.
City bridged another 12-year gap when they got their hands on the Premier Division trophy following last Friday’s final league game of the season against Bray Wanderers, after which the players were afforded the opportunity to join supporters in a city centre bar.
But any exuberant expressions of euphoria were parked 10 days earlier, when the achievement was celebrated into the early hours of the morning after a draw with Derry City at Turner’s Cross was enough to confirm Caulfield’s side as champions.
“When the lads won the league, they went out with the fans, they enjoyed the night, and it was back to basics then after that on the Thursday,” Caulfield said this week when asked about the importance of learning from the mistakes of 2005.
“If there was any lesson, it was total focus for the cup final because while the league win was massive, we have a cup final coming up and it’s up to everyone to make sure they prepare properly. To be fair to the lads they had their heads down straight away and they’re all geared.
“Have Mark [McNulty] and Alan [Bennett] been talking to them? They probably have. But from what I’ve seen at training, the attitude, even after getting the league trophy on Friday night, they went in and got all their photographs taken with the supporters but they were back out fairly quickly and they were all in again on Saturday morning. I think there’s no doubt that there’s no distractions this time.”
Admitting that missing out on a double remains a major regret, John O’Flynn — who’s now searching for a new club after two years at Limerick — says: “The lads on this team seemed like they enjoyed themselves after winning the league, but having worked under John [Caulfield] for a couple of seasons, I know he’ll have them right.
“Hopefully they won’t make the same mistake we did. We probably thought we’d keep coming back to cup finals but it’s never as easy as that, despite what you might think as a young player. When the opportunity is there in front of you, take it.”
Even though he wasn’t involved on the day due to a yellow card he picked up in a league game against Waterford, Roy O’Donovan offers a similar assessment.
“There are definitely regrets about it because we had an unbelievable team in 2005. I’d hope lessons are learned from our time,” says the attacker, who’s now plying his trade with Newcastle Jets in Australia’s A-League.
“I’m extremely proud to have played for Cork City and I was delighted to see them winning the league, but I’ll be even happier now if they go and win the double. That would be an absolutely unbelievable achievement from John and the boys.”
There won’t be a marriage equality legislation milked in Roscommon tonight…
@Phil O’ Meara: just take the rest of the day off your work here is done
Great performance from the Rossies .
I’ve a feeling this Roscommon team could go all the way and win it out
@Jamie: TAXI!!!!
@Martin McKenna:
Easy on the beer hahaha !!!
@Jamie: Is your brain broken or what?
2nd time to be completely embarrassed in the championship in two years. If we lose to Donegal in 2 weeks I think it could be time for change because the players are there to do better than we are doing. McStay had his tactics spot on.
@Damien Costello: Be afraid. You Will lose to Donegal. Donegal have been woeful so far but this team is young and gifted. They’re really to explode.
@Enda McCallion: Donegal have a very good young team and it would be unfair to judge them on the Tyrone result, they had a good league campaign and the result against Meath should bring them on a good bit. But Galway need a big result they have not won a knockout game against a top top side since they won the All-Ireland in 2001 and that’s not good enough. But I’d expect Donegal to win now after that miserable showing today.
As a galway supporter I say well played roscommon. This galway team will not do much as our defense is quite poor and fair play to the rossies for exposing that, best of luck in their next game.
Yeeeoow were gonna have a sam maguire before mayooo
@Jack: ya, ros will go all the way now :-/
Connacht final win in Salthill, doesn’t get much better than that.
Congratulations to Kevin McStay and all the players on the perfect display.
Roscommon Abu
Fantastic result for Roscommon. 1st Connacht title since 2010. Against the odds they dominated the game from beginning to end. The best team on the day by a distance. Onwards and upwards for the Rossies.
@SYM-Metal: weren’t you on here yesterday slagging off mayo and i people from castlebar? tell me again where roscommons manager is from paul? LOL!
@Dec: what ,your claiming Roscommon only won because they had a Mayo manager. Mayo made same claim about O Mahony managing Galway in 98 and 01 but when he went back to Mayo he couldn’t win anything. Leave it out .
@Finnster: no i’m not. i’m showing paul up to be the hypocrite that he is that he can slag off castlebar people one day and support a team managed by one the next. i’m delighted roscommon won as my wife is from roscommon. i would never like to be like yourself and paul scanlon who spend more time slagging off other teams than supporting there own. stop stretching for an argument finisher.
@Dec: it’s so easy to rile the Mayo supporters. I do support My team and Galway and Mayo won’t win any All Iteland this year .
@Finnster: sorry to tell u, i’m not riled. in my house growing up if we were beaten by galway we cheered them on for the rest of the year, because we’re neighbours and wanted gas in the west to do well. that would be fairly alien to you and scanlon. ye are the type that would curse a neighbour that had a better car, even if it was only for a few years. pretty sure mayo won’t win this year too but we came closer than anyone, including myself, thought we would. we’ll see how they get on this year.
@Dec: to be fair Dec you are way off the mark, I for years supported mayo as a second team and was probably at more mayo games than a lot of my mayo friends, I got sick of the showboating and cockiness from Mayo players and turned bitter. You may be one of the sound lads like my mates from Ballina so apologies.
@Dec: McStay’s success has nothing to do with where he was born, what a ridiculous notion. You say you are happy for Roscommon’s win today, yet you want to minimise their achievement by suggesting it’s because their manager is from Mayo? So It had nothing to do with the guts, grit and determination of a group of talented young footballers who worked their ass off in training to win this title? Today is their reward.
Didn’t say that Scanlon, read what I said to Finnster
McStay currently lives and has lived most of his adult life in Roscommon. His wife is a Roscommon woman and his daughers are Roscommon supporters.
When McStay seeked to manage his own county at senior level they said no to him. He has now moved on from that disappointment and has won Connacht for Roscommon totally against the odds and for the outsiders looking in he won Connacht without a number or quality footballers that couldn’t commit this year Neill Collins,David Keenan,Cathal Cregg or lads ruled out due to injury Kevin Higgins,Ultan Harney,Cathal Compton. After this success no doubt about it the best is yet to come for the rossies!
Where is all the haters now? Up Roscommon.
@Eoin Mulhern: We’re still here just a little quieter.
@Eoin Mulhern: right here, enjoy your moment . Shouldn’t be in it for too much longer.
@Richy: good man, cheers horse.
@Eoin Mulhern: Great display despite half the team leaving and turning their back on their county.
I love Roscommon…..
Come on the Rossies
Roscommon have some fantastic players as their recent underage success suggests.
Pound for pound Diarmuid Murtagh is as good a forward in the country, and if they can get Clann Na Gael pair Ultan Harney & Donie Shine back, they’ll be a match for anyone.
@Adelaide Kelly: good point, I made the same comment about diarmuid last year and how we were missing him, he’d walk on any team and I got destroyed, different class
@Adelaide Kelly: @Adelaide Kelly: donie shine was sitting where he should be. In the stands where he should be. He is no where good enough and hasn’t been for a long time.
Kevin has picked a panel that’s good enough to win Connaught. That panel should be supported and forget about the players that opted out or wer dropped.
@james murray: It’s only 7 years since he single handedly kicked Roscommon to a Cconnacht c’ship in 2010. He was the star player on that great minor team of 2006.
Enda Smith is a super talent also, would get on most teams in the land.
@Adelaide Kelly: 7 years and all he done was kick handy frees. What has he done for clann last two years. Very little.
@Adelaide Kelly: for the style of football Roscommon are playing he far to slow.
@james murray: He was the top club scoring forward by a mile when Clann won the county senior title two year ago. Last year when they won the league his scoring was the difference and this year between league and championship he’s the top scoring forward in the county. So far from very little… as for handy frees don’t ever underestimate the importance of a good free taker.
Tipperary all over again. Sheer arrogance exposes a mediocre Galway side again.
@Jack Strong: that and some ridiculously stupid short kickouts
@Jack Strong: tipperary are not in connaught , wise up.
@Michael Heery: I’m referring to their hammering of Galway in the quarters last year, you amadan.
@Jack Strong: you could only be a Mayo man taking such delight in Galway being beaten. Well done to Roscommon. We can take our beating in Galway .
You’re fairly fond of sticking the boot into Mayo yourself Finnster. Pot/kettle/black comes to mind.
@Spodo Comodo: indeed I am because ye can’t take yer bating and we will win Sam again before Mayo.
@Finnster: says the man with the obsession with mayo lol.
@Finnster: both teams piss poor :-D
@Hello there friend: agreed
@Patrick O’Sullivan: what ?
No stopping us now.
Great win for the rossies!
A Connacht championship is what these players deserve.
First and last football match I’ll watch this year
Lavelle is by far the stupidest keeper I’ve ever come across. What’s that saying about doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results? Fullback line (except maybe Kerins) for the scrap heap aswell……
@Michael Heery: wat dope it was obvious what he meant delighted for roscommon then again when you belive your own hype
Are the pairings known for the next round ?
Galway are playing Donegal, Mayo playing cork. Venues and times decided tomorrow
@Dec: limerick and Castlebar possibly.
@Dec: What about Tipp?
@Dec: Mayo 4 Sam :D
@Mick Power: they will be in the draw tomorrow with armagh, carlow and monaghan i think. The winners from those fixtures will play runners up in leinster and ulster. The other 3 will be hoping to avoid monaghan in the draw tomorrow i’d imagine.
Great result for Roscommon. I hope Gay Sheerin comes out publicly and apologises for his stupid comments earlier in the year. He has been proved very wrong today.
Thought Galway were very poor, going backwards fast after that result. Hard to see them getting anything against Donegal. Ref did them no favours at all though. He looked very unfit and unable to keep up with the play, gave at least two soft free’s to Roscommon because he was so far back from play.
Poor back 4 was cause of most of the trouble. Sort that out, and one had a decent team who may get to a semifinal, but not a chance of winning based on past 2 years performances.