Icing on the cake for first city of sporting excellence

NO, Roy Keane wasn’t there last night. But everyone else was. They came to Turners Cross to see a coronation, and that’s exactly what they got on the night the Shed was decommissioned.

The king may be gone, but Cork City wrote themselves into sporting history. To introduce a note of culture, vive les rois.

It’s been an extraordinary year on Leeside, with Cork reinforcing its credentials as the sporting capital of the country on the back of an array of silverware this year: Liam McCarthy was nestling with the ladies’ football and camogie trophies, and they had to make room for another arrival last night: the Eircom League trophy, with the FAI Cup final still to come. No wonder there’s a run on silver polish on Leeside.