Sleepless night but Rogers still emerged a cup winner

IT is just three months short of 19 years since Galway United last appeared in a domestic cup final, and just like back in League Cup final of the 1996/97 season, United go into Saturday’s decider against St Patrick’s Athletic as underdogs.

Back then, a United side plying their trade in the First Division met Cork City over two legs in the League Cup final, and Dennis Clarke’s side stunned their more venerated opponents to claim the cup with a 4-2 aggregate win.

Derek Rogers captained the side to cup success that year in the last of his 11 seasons at the club, and says that while winning the FAI Cup with United in 1991 was a highlight, “to be the captain of a team that wins a national trophy, it’s not every player that has that privilege”.

United’s preparations for that final almost two decades ago were hardly ideal: having won the first leg 3-1 on December 17 in Terryland Park with goals from Mark Herrick, Ronan Killeen and Jumbo Brennan, the players drove down to Cork the day before the second leg in their own cars in fairly treacherous freezing conditions, and stayed overnight in a hotel in the heart of the city. On New Year’s Eve.

“Yeah, there wasn’t much of ringing in the New Year. I didn’t have a great night’s sleep either, but it had nothing to do with parties going on around us – I was sharing a room with Stephen Lally and he talked all night!” Rogers jokes.

Not every member of the squad travelled down 24 hours in advance, as Ronan and Conor Killeen buried their grandfather on New Year’s Eve, and travelled to Turner’s Cross on the day of the game.

It was also a second trip to Cork in the space of 10 days – United had travelled to St Coleman’s Park on December 21 for a league game, just four days after the first leg of the final. It was little surprise that they lost 4-1.

“We were complete underdogs, no-one gave us a chance in the final, but the first leg was a very special night in Terryland Park. It was a week before Christmas, the place was packed, and there was no way they were going to beat us.

“I think it caught them by surprise, the atmosphere, the support we had and the style of football we played and Cork weren’t expecting that. From the first whistle I had no doubt that we would win.

“On the day of the second leg, the pitch was covered in ice. If that was today, the game would never go ahead, but I was praying they would play it as I thought it gave us a great chance. It would be a real lottery with players slipping and the ball skidding all over the place, which wouldn’t suit a side chasing a two goal deficit,” says Rogers, who now works at NUI Galway as well as providing analysis on United’s matches for Galway Bay FM.

City got back into the tie with a goal from Damien O’Connell after just 12 minutes, but United soaked up the pressure for the rest of the half before getting on top for the second 45 minutes, and when Fergal Coleman restored their two-goal aggregate lead with an equaliser in the 68th minute, the heart was pulled out of the Cork challenge.

Back then, the early stages of the League Cup was run on a regional pool basis, with United grouped with Athlone Town, UCG and Limerick. They started with a 2-0 defeat at home to Athlone Town, but qualified from the group with wins at home to UCG (2-0) and away to Limerick (2-1) to set-up a quarter-final meeting with a Derry City side that went on to win the league.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.