CUP FINAL - Wexford Youths 1 Derry City 6:HAVING KNOCKED out three Premier Division sides on the way to a first senior cup final, Wexford's dream of beating another to lift the silverware didn't seem entirely far-fetched to the 3,500 supporters who packed into Ferrycarrig Park on Saturday evening.
Derry City, though, have dominated this Eircom-sponsored League Cup in recent years and promptly showed why by paving the way to a fourth straight success with a devastating opening half hour display that left the locals reeling.
Goals from Sammy Morrow and Niall McGinn during the first 20 minutes of what was at that stage an open, entertaining and reasonably even game put City in a commanding position. But it was only after widely-admired Youths striker Danny Furlong pulled one back that Stephen Kenny's men hit full stride with Kevin Deery scoring spectacularly almost from the restart before Morrow and McGinn again found the net to put the outcome beyond doubt.
"Our lack of experience told big-time against us out there," admitted manager Mick Wallace afterwards. "We gave Derry too much time and space on the ball and we were too slow to react to what was going on around us. If we are going to play at this level then we have a lot to learn but it took us nine years to win our first inter-league championship, if it takes us another nine to get out of the First Division, then so be it."
Wallace, who accepted responsibility for his own failure to counter Niall McGinn's movement from one flank to the other by sending one of his more experienced defenders, Johnny Flynn O'Connor, after him, pointed to Deery's goal as the killer blow. However, in reality his side was simply outclassed for as long as City sought to play at full throttle.
As the visitors eased off in the second half, Youths played some nice passing football but when it mattered they had found it impossible to deal with the speed of City's passing and movement with McGinn's darting runs down the left a particular thorn in their side.
The winger sucked three players towards him as he made his way into the box for the first and still managed to slip the ball to Morrow for a shot fired home from a tight angle. McGinn scored the second himself after a neat exchange with Kevin McHugh released him to go racing goalwards, with the 21 year-old skipping over a couple of hesitant challenges before finding the bottom right corner.
"Then when they scored," observed City boss Stephen Kenny afterwards, "the place erupted and I thought; "S**t, if we'd defended right we could have won this easy but now we're in a dogfight. Then Kevin hit the top corner and that was it: Game over."
Wallace also acknowledged he had seen the writing on the wall at that stage. "When we got the goal back I felt we needed to hold it for a little while but the goal was beautiful. (Gianluigi) Buffon wouldn't have stopped it. It was an incredible strike and really it meant that as a contest the game was over."
The large local support did their best to lift their side but City obviously weren't nearly so focused after the break even if Morrow did complete his hat-trick with a close-range downward header after Derry's corner from the left had been flicked on to him in the heart of the six-yard box. By that stage the travelling fans, certain of their side's victory, were requesting waves from their players who one by one, as their names were called, found time to oblige.
Most of those who travelled will have seen City's three most recent victories in this competition too and all would desperately like to see Kenny turn the side's remarkable record in cups into a championship title next season. For the moment, though, the Dubliner still feels there is a little more work to be done before his squad can edge out the country's best sides over the course of a full league season.
"We won both cups and finished level at the top of the league a couple of years back when we lost out on goal difference," said the Dubliner. "But this side isn't as good as that one at this stage. We've lost the likes of David Forde, Darren Kelly, Ken Oman, Pat McCourt and Gary Beckett. We've got good young lads like Thomas Stewart and McGinn and fellas who have come in like Steven Gray and Ger Doherty but it will take time to get where we want to be and we'll need to add a bit more to the squad too."
With an FAI Cup quarter-final replay to come tomorrow night, though, and the semi-finals of Setanta Sports Cup coming up too, the current bunch might not be quite finished for this season yet.
WEXFORD YOUTHS:Doyle; Kearney, Lawlor (Dempsey, half-time), Rossiter, Flynn O'Connor; Doyle, Russell, Malone, Fitzgerald; Sinnott (Miller, 75 mins); Furlong (G Wallace, 85 mins).
DERRY CITY: Doherty; McCallion, Delaney, McChrystal, Gray (Higgins, half-time); McGlynn (Farren, 70 mins), Deery, Molloy, McGinn (Stewart, 58 mins); Morrow, McHugh.
Referee:R Winter (Dublin).
