Seáni Maguire on potential Cork City protests: 'I can understand it, but I think it's all about timing as well'

Maguire has fond memories of big cup games with City

Fri, 03 Oct, 2025 - 06:33

Andrew Horgan

Seáni Maguire will be fondly remembered by Cork City fans forever thanks to his 121st minute winner in the 2016 FAI Cup Final.

But what is easily forgotten by some on Leeside, probably because of what soon followed, is his heroics in the semi-final weeks earlier when his brace ensured City returned to the showpiece occasion at the Aviva with a 3-1 victory over, none other than, St Patrick’s Athletic.

“Yeah, fond memories of semi-finals against Pats,” admits Maguire, who will again lead the line for City against Pats in an FAI Cup semi-final tonight at Turner’s Cross.

“If we can even put a half a performance of what I did that day, then I'm sure we'll come away staring in the face of a cup final.” Just in case his current teammates weren’t aware of Maguire’s heroics against Dundalk almost nine years ago, Fiacre Kelleher joked that the forward “won’t shut up about it” during the week.

“Is that what he said yeah?” laughed Maguire a few minutes later, before suggesting there is some truth in his defender’s remarks as he looks to inspire his side to similar glory.

“I replayed it about three or four times in the media room,” he added.

“But yeah, I've said it again today. I've said it weeks ago. These opportunities and these sorts of milestones don't come around that often.

“Being in the cup final, not many people get to say they've played in front of 40-50,000 because a lot of these young fellas wouldn’t even had played in front of a packed Turner’s Cross, which it potentially could be on Friday night.

“It's something for really to just stick your chest out, shoulders back and just stand up like men because more often than not this season, a lot of us probably haven't done that.

“And that's why we're in the position that we're in (on the brink of relegation). But we've got 90 minutes to do that, and we can really put a positive into us, which has been a disappointing season.

“At the end of the day, everyone in the country thinks it’s going to be a Dublin derby final. Kerry did the unthinkable by coming from down 3-0 against Sligo to win 4-3. Anything can happen in football. Who’s to say there won’t be a Cork and Kerry Cup final?

“I still have a couple of years left in my contract. I came back to potentially retire here. Obviously, I didn’t think that 13 months into coming back that I’d be 10th in the league, 11 points off with 12 points to play for. I didn’t think in my wildest dreams that would happen.

“But I came back to win trophies and win medals, get the club back into Europe, and ultimately we’re 180 minutes from doing that.”

Turner’s Cross is likely to be packed for the visit of Stephen Kenny’s side but a number of those in attendance are also planning to air their grievances at how owner Dermot Usher is running the club, which could even include a disruption to kick-off.

Strangely enough, Maguire has experienced something similar to this before as he was in the Ireland squad back in 2019 when the Irish fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch in protest over John Delaney’s role at the FAI.

The FAI were later fined €10,000 as the protest delayed proceedings by four minutes with Conor Hourihane curling home the winner from a free following the resumption.

“That was a bit mad actually,” recalls the 31-year-old.

“It probably really won't make much of a difference. But if you'd ask me, would you want that to happen? Probably not because we want to be fully focused on the football game.

“I can understand it, but I think it's all about timing as well. It's a cup semi-final. Is it going to do any good for us players? Probably not. We've got a huge game.

“Look, I can't stand here and say you can't do this, you can't do that. They're entitled to.

“The fans have been disappointed all season, and they’re right to feel that. The season hasn’t been good enough; us players haven’t been good enough.

“I’m here, I really love being here. It really hurt me last Friday. It was quite difficult knowing that we’re staring in the face of it [relegation].

“I think Friday could really help us. It can go from being a really disappointing season to something to look forward to, end of the season on November 9.”