Brennan down but up for first cup medal

FAI Cup Final Countdown:Like many of the Longford Town team that will play in Sunday's Ford-sponsored FAI Cup final at the RDS, Damien Brennan has had to work hard these past few weeks not to let his focus stray to the longer-term future.

Win or lose this weekend, most of the Longford players expect to be elsewhere next season and while many have had offers, all have agreed beating Cork City must be their main priority. Come Monday, they can worry about who they'll be playing for next year.

For Brennan, there's a hint of déjà vu about it all. Less than a year and a half ago, Dublin City went to the wall and the squad went their separate ways. What the 27-year-old notices more than the similarities between the two situations, however, are the differences.

"In one way it does feel the same," says the Dubliner who has also had spells at Bohemians, Kilkenny City, Kildare County and Derry City, "but to be fair, you could argue that Dublin City's collapse was inevitable. The club had almost no support, Ronan (Seery) was doing everything himself and maybe there was a grain of truth in people saying it was one club too many in Dublin.

"But to see Longford get relegated is even more heartbreaking in a way because it's capable of doing well in the Premier division. They've a decent ground of their own, good support from the local people and the team this year was good enough to stay up - we finished second of the part-timers behind Rovers, if you don't count the six point deduction. In the end, though, we're going down and there's nothing we can do about it now."

The last couple of years of Brennan's career would have been very different if he'd opted to accept Stephen Kenny's offer of a full-time contract at Derry. He comes from a strong sporting background with rugby-playing cousin, Trevor, the best known member of the extended clan, and he enjoyed every minute of being part of the Brandywell set-up. "It was great up there," he recalls, "and Stephen was excellent with me but I was 25 at the time it was a big chance to take, going full-time because I work with the family business (a motor factors in Crumlin) which I was reluctant to walk away from.

"At the time, it was definitely tempting because I loved it up there and the question of being part-time was the only reason I left. I never minded the travelling because I enjoyed it all so much.

"The training was great, for a start. Apart from Stephen I got on well with Paul Hegarty. And Decky Devine was brilliant although I'd put Trevor Croly up there with him and Eamon Collins in terms of coaches I've worked with. Trevor's done a fantastic job at Longford this year."

Two years on from turning down Kenny's offer, there is a hint of regret he never took the gamble and a sense that, at 27, he sees the case against doing so now as being stronger than ever.

Still, he looks certain to have some attractive options after a season in which he performed consistently well for Longford.

Having spent most of his career and established an impressive reputation at right back, he successfully switched to central defence and his outstanding performance in the FAI Cup semi-final win over UCD showed just how well he had made the adjustment.

"I was pleased with my form, all right," he admits. "We had problems with injuries and so I was playing alongside lads who were out of position for a large part of the season but once Kevin Doherty and myself got a bit of run together at the end of the campaign, I thought we did well, I think we kept five or six clean sheets."

Another one on Sunday would set Longford well on the road to what would be their most remarkable cup success story yet.

"The whole thing has been really weird," he says. "Even the night we got relegated, you were sitting in the dressingroom afterwards thinking, "this is terrible . . . but we've still got a cup final to play'."

Now, they have the chance to end a long and difficult season on a high. "One way or the other I'll enjoy it," he says. "But I've never won anything really and after everything that's gone on, it would be a good time to start, all right."