Kenny Shiels hoping for '˜Devine' inspiration in the FAI Cup

DERRY CITY boss, Kenny Shiels is using the FAI Cup success of his predecessor, Declan Devine, to drive on his players in the hope of reaching the season's showpiece at the Aviva.
Derry City manager, Kenny Shiels wants to emulate ex-City boss, Declan Devine's FAI Cup success.Derry City manager, Kenny Shiels wants to emulate ex-City boss, Declan Devine's FAI Cup success.
Derry City manager, Kenny Shiels wants to emulate ex-City boss, Declan Devine's FAI Cup success.

The Derry boss, who is hoping to win his 15th trophy as a manager through the tournament, is no stranger to Cup success - his most famous being Kilmarnock’s League Cup victory over Celtic in the same year Derry City last won the FAI Cup in 2012 under Devine.

Shiels sat his players down to watch a re-run of that 3-2 victory over St Patrick’s Athletic at the team hotel in Wexford on Thursday night as an incentive to keep alive their hopes of reaching the club’s 11th FAI Cup Final. And it clearly did the trick as City came from behind to win 3-1!

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Four players who featured in that match remain in the current Derry City panel and Shiels wants the younger members of his team to be excited and emulate that success this year as they edge closer to a big day out in Dublin.

Before that, however, City face reigning FAI Cup champions, Dundalk at Oriel Park in the semi-finals on Sunday, October 2nd as Shiels goes head-to-head with another former Derry manager in Stephen Kenny who of course had success in the competition with the Candy Stripes in 2006.

But Shiels is hoping the 2012 success under Devine will help spur his side on.

“What a manager does at a club can lay the foundations for the next manager coming in,” said Shiels. “What Declan (Devine) achieved at Derry City has been good for us.

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“It gives us a yardstick and we can say we want some of that success. We want to be there. There was four players in that team sitting in the front row watching the video footage. Rory Patterson, Ryan McBride, Barry McNamee and Gerard Doherty were, ironically, sitting next to each other when it came on. They’ve all been through it.

“For the young boys sitting in that room beside them, to see the interviews and the city as a whole coming out to support them was excellent for them.

“If they don’t want some of that then there’s something wrong with them. That drives you on and it’s thanks to the success the club has had in the past.

“I’ve 14 trophies as a manager which is good. But the next one is always the most important.

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“We’ve got to squeeze every bit of an edge we can going into matches and that’s what we’re doing. We’re living off what has been done before us. That win in 2012 has given us the incentive to try and emulate that.”