Buckley looks for cup ‘reward’

“I hope it finishes this year,” smiles Liam Buckley with studied understatement when the subject of probably the most famous trophy drought in Irish football comes up yet again.

St Patrick’s Athletic go into tomorrow’s FAI Ford Cup final against Derry City at the Aviva Stadium looking not just to claim a prestigious trophy but, by doing so, to end 51 years of hurt for the famous Inchicore club.

And, as Pat’s go in search of that elusive first cup final victory since 1961, manager and former player Buckley needs no reminding that the hand of history is, once again, resting on the shoulders of the men from Richmond Park.

“Listen, we have [club president] Phil Mooney here, he goes back as long as Pat’s from my perspective,” he says. “Pat O’ Callaghan [father of former chairman Andy] — there’s a few of them here, a few elder statesmen, if you don’t mind me saying. I would dearly love for them to see us winning the cup because 51 years is an awful long time, being beaten in finals, semi-finals and quarter-finals. So it would be great for them and great for us as well. There’s a lot of new faces at the club but equally for all the people who have put so much time and effort in, all our volunteers, the lovely girls who come in with the tea every week and all that — it would be great for everybody to get some reward out of it.”

Yet, at the same time, Buckley is anxious that the unwanted record doesn’t mess with his players’ heads on the big day.

“To be honest with you, we don’t talk about 51 years ever in the dressing room,” he admits. “These guys are just concerned with trying to win a cup. It’s 50-50. And all we ask is that they just turn up on the day and give themselves a chance of playing well. We have our bits and pieces that we’ve worked on all season — that needs to come to fruition in the final.”

Nor is Buckley prepared to go along with the conventional wisdom which holds that his side — which finished third in the league to Derry’s fifth — are favourites.

“Were you up there at the game the other week in Derry?” he says with a thin smile, referring to the penultimate match in the league which saw Pat’s beaten 2-1 in a cup rehearsal at the Brandywell. “This season we’ve beaten them twice and they’ve beaten us once. They’re a particularly strong team. And now that their injured players are all back, their starting 11 is as good as there is in the league. So for me there is no favourite. I think we both will want to try and play so it will be interesting from that end of it. But it will be a tough game. We don’t see ourselves as favourites. We just see ourselves in a final. And we’ll have to work hard to get a result.”

And, if the 2012 Ford FAI Cup final should follow the pattern of three of the preceding four, that result could even come down to a penalty shoot-out.

“Penalties, you can practice them until the cows come home and it’s never the same as taking one in a big match,” says Buckley. “It would be like Pádraig Harrington practising a putt from 10 feet and he could probably knock a hundred in in a row. But put him in the Masters, final hole, 10-foot putt — you can’t practise that. Same in football.

“Some fellas are able to focus and just deliver a penalty. But when you throw in a cup final, the 51 years, the crowd, the abuse, the tension — you need fellas who can cope with that. I remember taking one in Spain for Santander when I was only there three weeks. We were in the cup playing Sporting Gijon away and it went to penalties. The manager said, ‘you taking one’ and I didn’t know whether he was telling me or asking me. So I was in on the fifth one and I scored and we got through the tie.

“When you talk about abuse and whistles — that was a derby game and a big one. But, luckily enough, I scored. Just closed my eyes and hit it as hard as I could.”

Pat’s are going into this final with their eyes wide open, leaving nothing to chance in their quest for silverware which — should they succeed — will also mean celebrations in Tallaght where Shamrock Rovers, who finished fourth in the league, would then follow the Inchicore side into the Europa Cup.

“You need your bit of luck too,” Buckley reflects as he sums up what lies ahead. “I’ve seen teams play poorly and win cup finals and I’ve seen teams play well and lose. I think we’re all excited about it. We’ve all been told about this history, the 50 odd years that have passed. But it would be great to make a bit of history for ourselves.”