Contenders prove their worth in the long run

Emmet Malone recalls how the champions survived early-season problems at home and a few late jitters to reach their grail

Unlike the team they beat last night to lift the title, Cork City had always been viewed as title contenders back in March when the season started. It wasn't long, however, before their difficulties on home turf were raising questions about their ability to go the distance in the championship race, questions they finally answered when it really mattered.

Cork's difficulties at home were most prevalent during the first few weeks of the campaign, when first Bray Wanderers and then UCD went to Turner's Cross and stole a point. Worse followed in the third home game of the campaign, Drogheda United securing a dramatic win courtesy of a Damien Lynch penalty 20 minutes from time.

At the time there were suspicions Damien Richardson's late arrival at the club that had dismissed Pat Dolan just days before the start of the season had not given him time to add players in key positions, but the manager remained publicly bullish - and sure enough, the results became more consistent.

There were, over the months that followed, unexpected slip-ups at home, against the likes of Longford, Waterford and, most recently, St Patrick's Athletic.

There were more and more big wins too, however, including back-to-back victories over Derry (2-0 at the Cross) and Shelbourne (by the same score at Tolka Park) that underlined the team's ability to bring the championship back to the city after a dozen barren years.

After the Shelbourne game, the team took 26 points from a possible 30, a run that included what Joe Gamble described this week as their best performance of the season, the 5-1 win over UCD at Belfield.

"Nobody in the league could have lived with us that night," he said. In four other games during that spell Richardson's men scored two or more goals.

The 10-match run opened with a 2-0 victory over Finn Harps, a game best remembered for the fact it was Kevin Doyle's last in a Cork City jersey. The club were obliged to let the prolific young striker leave for Reading because of a clause in his contract that had been signed while Dolan was still in charge. He marked the occasion, though, by scoring both goals, his sixth and seventh of the campaign.

Questions were immediately raised about how the team would fare without him, but Richardson dismissed the concerns and the players proved him right by actually stepping up the number of goals per game over what remained of the season.

Throughout the team there were players who stood out for their contributions and others who remained central figures from beginning to end.

In goal, Michael Devine was consistent as ever. Alan Bennett and Danny Murphy were the best two of an excellent back four. George O'Callaghan and Joe Gamble excelled in midfield. And John O'Flynn produced a steady supply of goals until injury sidelined him a month ago.

Roy O'Donovan made a remarkable contribution in what was his first full season at this level, and right back Neal Horgan was the only player to start each and every game of the campaign.

Neale Fenn created some wonderful goals and, over the past few weeks, the team's skipper, Dan Murray, scored a couple of crucial ones from the centre-back position.

The team played six European games but maintained their excellent domestic form right up until the last few weeks, when there appeared the first real signs of a wobble.

A home defeat by St Patrick's Athletic might have proven a fatal setback, but as it turned out Waterford, like the Dubliners battling at the other end of the table to preserve their top-flight status, won at the Brandywell the same night and so the top two were unaffected.

A couple more points were dropped at the RSC, and this time Derry took advantage by beating Bray. But two wins in quick succession at Dalymount, over Bohemians and then Shamrock Rovers, were crucial to keeping them in the race.

Last week's goalless draw at Shelbourne meant they would, after leading the league for so long, have to come from behind if they were to lift the title. But in the end they proved equal to the task, and so Cork's long wait to be champions is over and Richardson finally has the league winner's medal that had, for so long, cruelly eluded him.