'Sport is horrible at times, then it's brilliant' - Derry City chasing FAI Cup glory after league heartbreak

Derry City boss Ruaidhri Higgins admits he was green with envy after watching Shelbourne lift the league trophy in his own backyard.

But the Candystripes boss hopes it serves as motivation when his players look to avoid finishing the season empty handed in Sunday’s FAI Cup final at Aviva Stadium.

Going into the penultimate night of the Premier Division campaign, Derry were still in the hunt for the league and cup double.

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But their hopes were dashed after losing away to St Pat’s, and their noses were then rubbed in it when long-time title rivals Shels won at the Brandywell to clinch the title.

Higgins admits it was a punch in the gut watching Damien Duff and his players celebrate on the pitch - their pitch. Derry ended up slipping to a fourth-placed finish and must beat Drogheda in Sunday’s final to secure European football.

Higgins said yesterday: “We were too inconsistent and that’s the bottom line - we didn’t show enough levels of consistency throughout the season. It was an extremely competitive league and credit to all the clubs - that’s sport.

“It’s horrible at times and then it’s brilliant at times and you have to take the good with the bad and roll with the punches. It’s extremely tough, there’s no denying that, it’s extremely tough and there’s an element of jealousy when you see other clubs achieving what you want to achieve.”

Higgins continued: “We’re are all competitive, that's why we’re in the game and to see a team celebrating and lifting the trophy in our own backyard, it's tough. In saying that Shelbourne are deserved champions, they stuck right at it to the end, and they deserved to win the league, we can have no complaints.

“But it's not nice to witness that and hopefully, going forward, we can use it as fuel. We now have an opportunity in the final game of the season to finish on a positive note and give this city something to really cheer about and make people happy.”

And Higgins insists it won’t be difficult to lift his players as they look to park the heartbreak of recent weeks. Derry are hot favourites to beat Drogheda and lift the FAI Cup for the second time in three years, having rinsed Shels 4-0 in the 2022 decider. Nothing but victory will be enough if the Candystripes are to get back into Europe next season and Higgins knows that jeopardy brings extra pressure.

“There's no doubt about it, this club needs to be playing in European football, and we need to win the Cup to qualify for Europe,” he said. “Our focus is on trying to win the game - get European qualification and get the FAI Cup, kill two birds with one stone. We want to go and perform, if we can perform any way like the way we performed the last time we were there we will be extremely happy.”

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Derry have done it the hard way to reach this final having won away Cork City before beating St Pat’s and Shelbourne at home before a semi-final win away to Bohemians.

Higgins added: “I don’t remember a more difficult route for a team. And the players deserve so much credit. We’ve scored eight goals in the four games and conceded none against really really good opposition, some of the best teams in the country. If we play well on Sunday and win it, we’ll have absolutely deserved to win it. It would be an outstanding achievement.

“We totally respect our opponent and I’ve a lot of admiration for the people there and what they’ve done and how good they’ve been from the summer on. We know it’s going to be a tough game, but if we approach it in the right manner and to our strengths, we can lift another trophy.”

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