Stephen Henderson hopes Cobh Ramblers can turn silver medals into gold

By Andrew Horgan

It came as a huge disappointment to the people of Cobh when the EA Sports Cup final was selected to take place at the Brandywell instead of St Colman’s Park.

Rather than playing their first ever national cup final in front of a raucous home crowd, Ramblers will be the visitors when they take on Derry City in the League Cup final tomorrow afternoon.

But manager Stephen Henderson is now pushing the positives of Ramblers’ trip to Derry.

“Sometimes home advantage can go against you,” warned manager Stephen Henderson, speaking from experience.

Henderson was in charge when Waterford hosted Bohemians in the 2009 final and believes the pressure of playing at home contributed to his side’s 3-1 defeat.

“When we played at home my players absolutely got caught up in the whole thing because they were Waterford lads. They were walking around in Waterford and everyone was patting them on the back and wishing them loads of luck.

“Everybody had the bunting out, the flags up, the posters out and they really got caught up in what it meant to the people of the town.

“Even on the day, I think we made a mistake. We all met up at the hotel had our dinner together and as we got the bus down we were coming through the crowds.

“That can go two ways on you. You can either get inspired or you can fucking shit yourself and I could see a lot of the players on our bus going white.”

“That’s why we are saying we have to go up there and we have to enjoy it. That pressure that is exactly what is going to be happening up in Derry.

“Their players are going to be walking around the town, they’re going to be patted on the back for winning the cup already because we’re eighth in the First Division so it should be a stroll for them.

“They’ll be sitting in that dressing room after going through all that, how are they going to react to it? If they react really well to it we could be in a bit of fucking bother.”

Having assembled such a young squad, Henderson is expecting a few nerves on the day as they aim to make history for the club against all odds.

But the message to his troops before they depart the away dressing room will be to make the most of this unexpected opportunity.

“They have to embrace it,” he added. “Nerves aren’t a bad thing, its adrenaline and we can use that really push ourselves on and just give it our all.

“When we don’t have the ball just work really hard to get it back like you did as a kid. Remember when you used to chase them around like swarms of bees? Get after people, get the ball back and when you have it go and play. .

“Just enjoy the occasion and trust yourself. When you started playing football, you played with no fear, didn’t you? You didn’t even know what fear meant.

“You went out and you enjoyed the game. You didn’t know what losing was all about. It was all about going out and playing to your heart’s content.

“That is what we really want them to do and get that message across to them, to enjoy this as much as possible. It is a long trip up to Derry, it is even longer coming down after losing.

“They know who Derry are, they know who their players are and they know how they play. Now go out and enjoy it. When you have the ball, play like you are a kid.”

When Cobh finished second in the First Division last season, the club handed its players runners-up medals as a reward for their achievements but also as an incentive to pursue further success.

Ramblers, yet to concede a goal in this season’s EA Sports Cup, have a chance of glory on Sunday and Henderson is confident his side can add Derry to the list of Premier Division scalps which already includes Limerick and Dundalk.

“Sadly there was an element of pride giving 17-19 year olds a silver medal,” he admitted.

“What we tried to say to them was there is your silvers, how can we turn this into gold. We didn’t realise the following year we would have an opportunity to turn that silver medal into a gold.

“Derry have some very good players and they play to the strengths of their players but they do have weaknesses. On their day Derry can hammer anybody. But also on their day they can be beaten by anybody.”