Champions Cork City lift the league title with a win over Bray at a packed Turner's Cross 

Cork City 2 Bray Wanderers 0 

A HUGE crowd of 5,507 packed Turner's Cross on Friday night to watch Cork City get their hands on the First Division trophy. 

After securing the title against Wexford two weeks ago, City rounded off their campaign with a victory over Bray thanks to goals from Barry Coffey and Ruairí Keating before being presented the league trophy.

The game brought an end to City’s two-year stint in the First Division, with excitement already building for next season’s campaign back in Ireland’s top tier.

It was particularly special for veteran goalkeeper Mark McNulty as he made his last appearance in professional football. The 42-year-old in his 375th league game and his 482nd in total, received a standing ovation from all of those in attendance when he was replaced in the 25th minute, ending his 22-year playing career for City.

Reflecting on his side’s achievement, City manager Colin Healy always felt that he had a squad good enough to succeed. The City boss believed that the club’s strong finish to last season was the foundation for the campaign, along with their early off-season recruitment.

"From the start of the season I thought we had a good chance of winning it. When we got the players that we wanted the likes of Ally (Gilchrist), Keats [Ruairi Keating], Kevin O’Connor, Barry came back, we got Matt Healy, and Matt Srbely came in, so I thought we were a lot stronger. Looking back, I think the lads having a good second-half to the season last year stood to them, and then adding to the squad helped. 

"We lost some good players as well. We lost Gearoid (Morrissey) and Beats (Steven Beattie), who were good characters as well as good players. But we replaced them.

“I think there was an expectation there for us to get promoted. With the size of the club and the amount of support we get every week, there was an expectation from the fans, and rightly so. We are a massive club.

“With the players we brought in, probably a lot of people thought we would go close. As a coach and a manager you want to do well. We went on a great run of form during the season. 

"We were winning a lot of games. We were difficult to beat. We weren’t leaking goals. I think we went from strength to strength. What was key to our success was that everybody bought into what we were doing.

“Just looking at the players at the beginning of the season, I knew we had a good squad. We had a lot of options. So I knew we would be there or thereabouts. But I also knew Galway, Waterford and Longford would be strong. So it’s been great to go and win it.” 

City’s title win was made sweeter by the fact that they began the season as third favourites for the league behind high-spending Galway United and Waterford. Many neturals had not predicted the Rebel Army finishing top of the table before a ball was kicked, but that was not the expectations of the City players, who believed they were the team to beat. This youthful City team have shown great maturity to navigate their way to the title, providing a lot of doubters wrong in doing so.

CORK CITY: McNulty (Corcoran 25) Coleman, Gilchrist, Hakkinen; Crowley (Srbely 79), Bolger, Healy (Walker 79), Coffey, O’Connor (McGlade 60); Keating, Murphy (O’Mahony 60).

BRAY WANDERERS: McGuinness; Massey (Lynch 74), Douglas, O’Boyle (McManus 87), Hudson; McGlone (Thompson 74), Knight, Clifford, O’Neill; Feeney, Dalton (Waters 74).

Referee: M Moynihan