Stephen Kenny believes FAI Cup win can be Derry City's springboard for title success

STEPHEN KENNY knows a thing or two about winning the FAI Cup and the Ireland boss believes victory in Sunday's Final at the Aviva Stadium could act as Derry City's 'catalyst' to bridge the gap on Shamrock Rovers.
By Simon Collins
Published 9th Nov 2022, 16:50 BST
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The Dubliner was an interested spectator in the Mark Farren Stand on Sunday evening watching two of his former League of Ireland sides go toe-to-toe in the final match of the 2022 league campaign.

Kenny has guided four different teams (Longford, Bohemians, Derry and Dundalk) to the FAI's showpiece, featured in EIGHT FAI Cup finals and won the trophy three times, once with Derry City (2006) and twice with Dundalk (2015 and 2018).

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And so he's witnessed first hand how winning the trophy can become the platform to build a title winning team.

While Kenny, who spent two spells as manager of Derry, believes Shamrock Rovers will start next season as 'strong favourites' to retain their title, he reckons an FAI Cup success would give Ruaidhri Higgins' charges the impetus to close the gap on the Dubliners.

"It definitely can," agreed the Ireland manager. "We've seen that so much in the past. We've seen it with Cork City when we won three in a row leagues with Dundalk.

"They won the cup final which would've stopped us getting three doubles, with Sean Maguire in the 119th minute scoring. And that cup final gave Cork the catalyst to go on and win the league the next year in 2017.

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"Shamrock Rovers won the cup (2019), Stephen Bradley's first trophy, and that was the catalyst for them to go on and win the league as well. So it can be significant for teams, there's no doubt about it."

Ireland manager Stephen Kenny believes an FAI Cup triumph for Derry City could be significant in their bid to close the gap on Shamrock Rovers.Ireland manager Stephen Kenny believes an FAI Cup triumph for Derry City could be significant in their bid to close the gap on Shamrock Rovers.
Ireland manager Stephen Kenny believes an FAI Cup triumph for Derry City could be significant in their bid to close the gap on Shamrock Rovers.

Kenny reckons this year’s showpiece will be a ‘tight affair’ but believes Derry are ‘further ahead than Shelbourne in their development’.

"It’s a special day for both teams. It's Damien's first year with Shelbourne and obviously Shelbourne and Derry have rivalry going back to the 80s, that continued into the 90s and 2000s.

"The cup final will be tough for both teams. Derry are further ahead than Shelbourne in their development. They’ve more quality players like Patrick McEleney and Michael Duffy but Shelbourne have been on a good run of later and are not conceding goals.

"Cup finals are always tight affairs so there's no formalities in it. I'm sure it will be an evenly contested game.”

Related topics:IrelandDundalkDubliner