Ger Nash says he has no regrets about Friday stop at Aviva before Drogheda game

Cork City manager Ger Nash. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

Ger Nash insists he has no regrets about Friday's trip to Aviva Stadium extending a long journey to Drogheda United.

City could become the first team to win the FAI Cup in the same season as relegation since Dundalk lifted the Blue Riband in 2002.

Rebels boss Nash used the trip to Co Louth to make a stopover to familiarise players with the surrounds of the 51,000-seater national stadium ahead of the meeting with Shamrock Rovers on November 9.

That pitstop, coupled with usual Friday traffic and roadworks on the M1, almost doubled what should have been a four-hour journey.

“We left at 11.45am and got here at 7.50pm – so it’s been a long day,” said Nash at the match venue.

Despite losing the game 1-0, the manager wasn’t making any excuses for the basement side suffering their 19th defeat in 34 games.

“We ended up spending a lot of time on the bus but it’s not a big issue,” he said.

“We wanted to get in and have a feel for the place, especially for the young players, and this was the best opportunity. We left Cork early, something we wouldn’t normally do, and we spent 15 minutes there.

“Only a couple of players had played at the stadium. It was only a minor thing but maybe an important thing and we’ll find out in a few weeks whether it helped or not. But our focus was fully on this game.

The slog of a trek, however, influenced the decision not to involve star striker Seáni Maguire.

“We worked too hard to get Seáni Maguire back from injury to risk him after all that time on the bus,” added Nash.

“We’d played four days earlier so I wanted to change the team and give some of the younger players a chance. There were others too that needed minutes.

“It was an honest performance from the players. The minimum thing is that we learn from these defeats.”