No room for sentiment with friends from the North

FAI CUP FINAL COUNTDOWN/INTERVIEW WITH BOHEMIANS' KILLIAN BRENNAN: A YEAR after leaving Derry City to join Bohemians and just short of two from the day when he helped the Northern club win one of the most exciting cup finals of recent times, Killian Brennan has more reason than most to savour the prospect of Sunday's Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final at the RDS.

The 24-year-old remains close to some of his former team-mates as well as to the Derry City manager, Stephen Kenny, and his career might have taken a very different path had the Dubliner's not gone the way it did. For a start, he admits, he might have stayed at the Brandywell had the manager never left for Scotland while he came close to following Kenny to Dunfermline only to have second thoughts as relegation loomed for the then SPL outfit.

Now, he is excited as much by the prospect of a clash between two clubs of great importance to him as by the idea of a tussle between what he regards as the country's two best footballing sides on one of the Irish game's most celebrated stages, cup final day.

"As I've said so many times, if you'd asked me at the start of the season," he says, "I'd have taken winning the league by 20-odd points, it's been a great year for us, but we've played Derry four times and we haven't beaten them. Three in the league and one in the League Cup when they beat us 4-1 away. They've been the best side we've played by a mile, a really good footballing team and we know they have some really good players.

"Obviously at the RDS it's going to be a very different game and we have something to prove to them. When they beat us at Dalymount the night we got the league trophy the referee made some bad decisions, we should have had a penalty and we had a man sent off in the same incident but we know it's going to be a tough game and we're under no illusions about the fact they were the best team we've played this year."

Brennan was an important member of the Derry side that beat St Patrick's Athletic 4-3 after extra time at Lansdowne Road to lift this trophy in 2006 and the midfielder had played a key part too in the Uefa Cup run that year which ended with a proud display against Paris St-Germain at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

A couple of years on, though, he has been one of the league's outstanding performers for Bohemians. Kenny, you sensed, could see it coming as he lamented the player's departure after arriving back from Scotland although Brennan tends to play down the extent to which he has matured over the past couple of seasons.

"I don't think I've developed too much really," he says with a laugh. "Obviously, I've gotten a few more goals and that's put me in the spotlight a bit more than when I was at Derry. But last year at Derry I was being put back to left-back or played left midfield, I don't think the manager (John Robertson) knew where to play me to be honest but I've been much happier this year playing on the wing and scoring a few goals.

"Maybe that's the only thing because I haven't gotten physically any better in the last few years. I've been pretty much the same since I was 19 although back then I played a bit more centrally and, to be honest, I'm probably more comfortable in there too."

He's sees a return to central midfield as a distinct possibility in the future but given he was Bohemians' top scorer in the league this season with 11 goals from 27 appearances, nobody should be expecting to see him in there on Sunday. True, a good proportion of his tally have come from set-pieces, particularly his excellent free-kicks, but he is one of the best crossers of the ball when playing out wide. His awareness of what is on for team-mates combined with an ability to provide, with consistent accuracy, the pass required has made his contribution invaluable from out on the wing.

Another big performance on Sunday would be a major boost to Bohemians as they look to complete the double. Between now and then, though, his friends in the North will be working hard on devising ways to keep him quiet.