WHAT should have been a run-of-the-mill first round FAI Cup at Brandywell tonight, is fast turning into a show of defiance from the local supporters.
Derry City’s game with Crumlin United, something of a formality in footballing terms, is being used as a stage by the home fans to vent their displeasure at the National league of Ireland’s disciplinary measures on Derry this week.
These have been well documented and need no further comment here.
Crumlin United may have strayed innocently into the fray, but have no need to be concerned and indeed will take home half of a much healthier gate than could have been previously imagined.
As revealed in the Irish News earlier in the week, the official Derry City Supporters Association have put plans in place to pay the fines levied against club and manager, and with a big crowd expected this evening, should pass the £1,500 total, (before the appeal against them is heard), with a bit to spare.
On the field, Crumlin have little chance of causing an upset, or making their area of Dublin known for being anything other than the birthplace of the late great Phil Lynott.
Derry City: O’Dowd, Purdy, Dunne, Hutton, Curran, Dykes, Mohan, Hegarty, Liam Coyle, Hargan, Keddy, Ryan Coyle, Semple, Devine
Referee: Hughie Byrne, (Dublin)
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SPECULATION over the inter-county future of some of Derry’s leading players has increased following reports that several of them did not attend Tuesday night’s meeting with management officials.
Although a county official yesterday flatly denied rumours that Tony Scullion, Damien Barton and Damien McCusker had decided not to return to county training, they are thought to be seriously considering their future at the top level.
As was the case in many counties, some of the ‘old hands’ took a rest after exiting from the Ulster championship.
All were expected to return in the new year for the second half of the National League and the championship.
In Derry Brian McGilligan, Enda Gormley and Dermot McNicholl have all done so, but there are other notable absentees. Scullion and Barton, both 35 before this year’s championship, have been the backbone of the Derry team for well over a decade but neither appeared on Tuesday night.
Goalkeeper Damien McCusker, meanwhile, is believed to be content with playing for soccer club Ballyclare Comrades as well as for his club Glen this year.
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TWO champions, one title.
Wayne McCullough, the WBC’s 26-year old ‘paper champion’, aims to let fly the Patriot missiles tonight in Boston to blast veteran Hispanic hit-man Daniel Zaragoza for the Mexican’s craved-for world super-bantamweight title.
U2’s rock anthems and a 4,500 capacity crowd at the Hynes Auditorium will provide McCullough with the atmosphere to sparkle and produce the kind of performance which won him the bantamweight championship in Japan 18 months ago. McCullough says the snap is back, and certainly to look at him during Thursday’s press conference, gone is the drawn skin tone of a boxer past his transfer date as a bantamweight, the case last year in Dublin when subjected to a fierce examination by Jose Luis Bueno.
“I’m feeling better than I have felt within myself for a long time. Everything about my preparation for Zaragoza has been very good,’’ he said.
My weight is good, I’m feeling strong, and on the night people will see a great performance.
I’m here to take Zaragoza’s title. I’m not leaving Boston this weekend without it. I’m here to win.”
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LAVEY are still celebrating their historic win last Sunday when they brought the first ever Ulster minor hurling title to Derry.
The boys won the Ulster minor hurling final against Keady at Ballinascreen by 1-8 to 3-1.
The minors went one better than the Lavey seniors, who have been beaten three times in Ulster finals.
Goals from Keady captain Ciaran Hatzer and Conor Breen in the first-half had given Keady a one-goal advantge at the break.
But Lavey came storming back in the second half with Dominic Collins, Kevin McCloy, Paul McVeigh and Ryan Cushnahan giving the Keady defence a torrid time. Collins,
Lavey’s captain, was originally ruled out of the game through injury but he recovered in time and played a stormer, scoring five points in the second half.
The Lavey players paid tribute to managers Tom Magill, Damien Boyle and Cushendall maestro Alex Emerson. Credit for an excellent Keady team must go to manager Jim McCormick and his selectors.
The game crowned a good season for Lavey with fellow clubman Ollie Collins becoming Derry’s first Allstar hurling nominee and Derry winning the All-Ireland B hurling championship.
Judging by Sunday’s performance, many players on both teams will meet again at senior inter-county level.
Lavey: Johnny McGarvey, Paul Magill, Francis Scullion, Shane McNally, Ryan Fitzsimmons, Kevin Collins, Gavin Boyle, Thomas Cassidy, Kevin McCloy, Ryan Cushnahan, Christopher McCloy, Paul McVeigh, Paul Fitzsimmons, James McCloy, Dominic Collins.
Sub: James Collins.
Keady: Rory Digby, Chris Woods, Stephen Murray, Padraig Beagan, Stephen Comickey, Raymond Murray, Gerald Enright, Paul McCann, Phil Kirk, Shay McAuley, Conor Breen, Mark Hughes, Liam McGreevy, Croinn McShane, Kieran Hatzer.
