Seconds out, round four: Cork City and Dundalk set for another rumble in the Aviva

By Liam Mackey

The casual channel-hopper who alights on RTÉ 2 tomorrow afternoon might be forgiven for complaining about yet another repeat but, for knowledgeable football folk, any sense of deja vu will be more than offset by the compelling prospect of another collision between the two juggernauts of the Irish game.

The cup holders versus the newly crowned League champions. Three-in-a-row versus the double. The fourth instalment in an epic saga. Or, to put it at its simplest: Cork City versus Dundalk in the 2018 FAI Cup Final – a reminder that, no matter how much we all love the idea of giant-killing in the cup, the true behemoths will always prevail.

And, in the domestic game, they don’t come any bigger or better than the Rebels and the Lilywhites, with their last three meetings at the Aviva requiring extra-time and, last year, a penalty shoot-out.

On the back of their record-breaking title success, most are tipping Dundalk to shade it this time, yet if it’s true you’re only as good as your last game, then Cork City might be deemed to be in the ascendant, a 5-1 walloping of Bray Wanderers making it three wins on the spin – and 11 goals scored – since they got their mojo back after the blow of surrendering their title.

However, Dundalk manager Stephen Kenny reckons that a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Bohemians in their final league game will stand his own side in even better stead tomorrow.

“We could have gone into the final on the back of the 5-0 win against Sligo so last Friday was a good game for us,” he says.

“Obviously we had several players missing and we were a little bit experimental in the match but we still wanted to win it. Bohemians played well. We’ve lost three league games this year – Shamrock Rovers at home, Waterford away and Cork away – and I can honestly say I didn’t really feel we deserved to lose any of them. I’m not saying we should have won all three but I don’t think we deserved to lose them.

“But we could have lost to Bohs on Friday. Bohs could have been two-up and missed two or three chances so that was one of the first games like that this season. But I don’t think the players have let up in any week really in relation to how they’ve trained and how they’ve played.

“And we need to bring that to the Aviva tomorrow because Cork are a team of seasoned pros, a strong team, physically very strong and with a lot of experience. They will be tough opponents

“We’ve won three of the games against Cork this year and they’ve won one but there’s not been more than a goal in it. They’ve been hard-fought games all of them really so we’ll have to earn it.”

Which, he suggests, was also the story of their title triumph.

“This team had to prove itself because a lot of younger players came in, some this season and some last season, and they were sort of in the shadows of previous teams who had gone to the Europa League, the likes of Daryl Horgan, David McMillan, Patrick McEleney, Andy Boyle and Richie Towell before that.

“You can’t replace those players but could these players be as good? They’ve gone and done absolutely brilliantly really because they’ve broken the goals record and all-time points record. You can’t do any more than that. They’ve been absolutely spectacular in their response because, for a lot of them, not only was it their first league title with us, it was their first trophy. They’ve responded in a way you’d be thrilled about as a club.”

“Now they’re going to the final to have the perfect season to win the double, to win the final, to really turn it on in the cup final. That’s what you’d really like to do, to really open up and show their quality.

“We want to take the game and take control. That’s our ambition. That’s what we want to do. A lot of the players are really flying at the moment, a lot of very good attacking players really coming to the fore, particularly Michael Duffy, Patrick Hoban, Patrick McEleney.

“And younger players like Ronan Murray and Jamie McGrath have really come into it in recent weeks and done really well - we have a good attacking threat.”

In that context, it’s no surprise that Kenny is giving star striker Pat Hoban every chance to prove his fitness after going over on his ankle against Bohs. And it’s a similar scenario for John Caulfield who will want to be sure that Karl Sheppard, Steven Beattie and Alan Bennett are fully fit for the fray.

“If it was a league game you might take a gamble with them,” says the City manager.

“I know other people will say you could take the gamble on a Cup final because that’s the last game of the season but I know how much energy you need on what is the biggest pitch in the country, as well as the whole emotion of it. It’s a draining day and you need every fella to be right.”

Seconds out. Round four. The heavyweights are ready to rumble again.