Coughlan primed for central role at last

FAI Cup final: Cork City's challenge to the suspension that is set to keep Alan Bennett out of Sunday's Carlsberg-sponsored FAI Cup final will be heard this evening, but, despite upbeat talk from the club's manager over the past few days, the critical yellow card the defender received in the league game against Waterford looks highly unlikely to be overturned.

If the centre-half, who has been outstanding this season for the champions, does miss out, it will be a blow for a team whose success has been in no small part built on the foundations of a rock-solid back four that consistently proved good enough to frustrate opposing strikers.

In Derek Coughlan, though, Damien Richardson can call on a replacement who is not only capable and experienced; the 28-year-old is also a ready-made cup hero, having scored the winner for City the last time the club reached the final, back in 1998, when Shelbourne, fresh from the calamity of the league's last round of games, were their victims.

Richardson was the Shelbourne boss back then and the goal that separated the sides at the end of the replayed final has not, says Coughlan, been forgotten.

Neither, he goes on to observe with amusement when asked if he has had a hard time from the manager in training, has what followed later that night.

"I think we gave him stick at the time!" chuckles the former under-21 international. "He was staying at the Burlington Hotel where our celebrations were on and a couple of the lads knocked on his door by accident looking for me. I'd say he nearly threw a wobbler.

"I was slagging him about it last week," he adds, "but I said I would get the winner for him this time and make it up to him."

The relationship between the pair is considerably better than might be expected given that Coughlan started just three games this season after agreeing to forego a return to Gaelic football in order to rejoin City. Indeed, he only narrowly qualified for a league winner's medal on the basis of his appearances from the bench.

"Naturally, I am a bit disappointed from a personal point of view that I haven't played more often, but that is testament to how good the team has been all year," he says.

"It's frustrating, because I feel I should be playing. But the lads have done well and have been keeping clean sheets left, right and centre, so I can't really complain.

"What made it easier," he continues, "is the fact I have so much time for the manager. Every decision he made was for the benefit of the team and I understood that.

"With other managers, they would make decisions and you wouldn't know whether to trust in them or not, but I trust in Damien 100 per cent."

The strength of their relationship was at the heart of the his decision to choose soccer over Gaelic football, which he had previously played to minor intercounty level, at the start of the season.

"My mind was made up," he says, "to play GAA, but a week later Damien came in and that changed things. I was going to take it (the Gaelic football) seriously.

"I wanted to get onto the county panel. That was my aim. Whether I would have or not is a different matter, but that was the plan."

Instead he finds himself on the verge of a return to a City team that is aiming to write itself into the history books by emulating the double-winning Cork Athletic team of 1951.

"To win it would be massive," he says.

"I have been telling the lads that when we came back from winning the Cup in 1998 the streets were thronged with people when we went around on an open-top bus.

"It was like coming back with the All-Ireland.

"I have been saying, 'Can you imagine if we came back with the cup, especially after the climax to the League season?'

"To come back to the train station on Monday and get on an open-top bus would be the sort of thing dreams are made from."

But the extent of his involvement still hinges on what happens in Dublin this evening.

"To be fair, without thinking about myself, I'd like to see the ban lifted. It would be the fairest thing, but I know that if it happens then it would be more or less the same team that played against Derry. If not . . . well, I'll be raring to go."