It wasn’t to be for Derry City FC supporters, after their team lost 2-0 to Drogheda United in today’s FAI Cup Final – and ex-player Gareth McGlynn didn’t hold back about it.
Around 20,000 Derry City fans descended upon Dublin for the match, with Translink putting on special extra trains and buses for the occasion.
While hopes had been high, they were soon dashed.
Two goals from Drogheda’s Andrew Quinn and Douglas James-Taylor secured the win as they appeared comfortable throughout the game.
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The north-west side’s fans looked visibly dejected after they lost out at the Aviva Stadium, with McGlynn telling the RTE punditry panel that the “players have let the city down tonight, they’ve let the manager down and they’ve let the chairman down, and it’s not good enough”.
He continued: “You can have all the technical ability in the world if you want, but if you haven’t got the heart to go and do something and the need to go and do something, then you’re not going to achieve it, and they need to be damn ashamed of themselves.”
Whilst the Candystripes have previously won six FAI Cups, the weekend marked just the second time Drogheda have been crowned cup champions in their history, 19 years after their first.
The northern team’s loss isn’t helped by the fact that they slumped out of the League of Ireland title race toward the end of the season either.
The men, managed by Ruaidhrí Higgins, won just one of their last seven league games, and that victory came against bottom-placed Dundalk.
The manager, though, is determined to keep going.
“It’s very raw. I had eight and a half years as a player, three as a manager, so for 12-odd years I represented this club,” Higgins said when asked about his own future after the Cup Final defeat.
“I am proud to represent and manage the club, I am still in contract. When times are tough you have two options, you can roll over or come out fighting. I live in the city, when the going gets tough normally you come out fighting and I am sure that’s what we will do.
“There has to be a refresh and a reboot, there’s work to be done, that’s for sure over the off-season for the club to try and go forward.
“Ultimately I lead the team, four weeks ago we were in a brilliant position, collectively we just haven’t been able to get it done it when it matters and that hurts, there was real potential, real excitement, it feels like an anti-climax, a lot of soul searching to be done, it will be a long off-season, to be sure.
“The club means an awful lot to me, I get criticised for being emotionless at times. I am an extremely emotional person and when you don’t achieve it hurts and hurts bad, it affects your life and the people around you. Do I still have the drive and the hunger to keep going? When the dust settles, my intentions right now are to keep going, we have to try and look forward.”