St Patrick's Athletic manager Liam Buckley insists
t the club's remarkable run of FAI Cup final defeats will be only become a talking point within the squad if they break the seqluence on Sunday by beating Derry City in this year's final.
The Inchicore outfit have lost seven deciders since last lifting the trophy way back in 1961 and the issue is usually high on the agenda for Buckley’s cup-related press conferences and a major preoccupation for fans.
Buckley, though, insists that it’s simply not an issue for players who weren’t even born when then the run began.
“It’s doesn’t matter for them and it’s not like the club is never going to win the competition again. We will at some stage and the important thing now is that we have an opportunity to do it this Sunday.”
The manager, who led Sporting Fingal to the trophy in 2009, has a near full strength squad to choose from for the final with just Mark Quigley (back) and Aaron Greene (cup-tied) ruled out of the game and the Dubliners will start as favourites to win.
He insists, however, that having finished third in the league, he is reluctant to let Sunday be seen as defining the team’s season and whether it is remembered a s a success or not.
League decider
The former striker texted Cork City boss
John Caulfield
to make just that point in the wake of Friday’s league decider and says that there has to be an acceptance no team can win every year but that if they are consistently competitive there will be successes along the way.
“As a footballer, you want to be at the cutting edge of the league, or in semi-finals or finals of Cups,” he says.
“And that’s where I’d like Pat’s to be over the next few years, contending every year but you won’t win it every year because it’s such a difficult league.
“You’ve competition from your Corks and your Dundalks; Sligo have won bits and pieces, Rovers . . . like, it is a very competitive league, so just from a football perspective you want to be competitive.”
Derry’s status as outsiders this weekend is based on the fact that they weren’t especially competitive in the league at times and finished the campaign 28 points behind the defending champions.
St Patrick’s skipper Ger O’Brien is wary of the number, though, with the defender contending that in this instance at least, the table does in fact lie.
“Yeah, they had a poor start,” he says, “and Peter (Hutton) has not got the biggest of squads so he’s certainly looked to manage it for this competition.
Played wel
l We might have caught them cold a bit here (Richmond Park, where they won 5-2). Roddy (Collins) had just gone, Peter was barely in the door, we played well and we scored quite a lot of goals but up there they were strong and we had to defend very well. So we know their strengths.”
Still, seven points from nine would have delivered another league title if it could have been replicated against every other side. And if that level of dominance continues on Sunday afternoon, it should certainly deliver a cup.
The setting and occasion might level things up a bit but Buckley feels they too may be factors that work in his side’s favour.
“I’ve seen these guys away to Legia Warsaw (when they drew1-1) and that was a fantastic experience; a great stadium, a big crowd . . . I thought they did brilliantly. If they’re anything like that at the weekend they’ll give Derry a game, that’s for sure.”
Talk of cup finals past might just be back on the Inchicore agenda by Sunday evening – if St Pat’s play to their capability.
