Cork City made the most of cross border competitions

THIS summer, Cork City FC Women will enter a new competition that will see them take on opposition from the Women's Premiership in Northern Ireland, and this will return cross-border football to Turner’s Cross after a seven-year hiatus.

The last all-island game was a meeting between City and Linfield in the Europa League in 2016, and that was a throwback to when those competitions used to be the norm. The most well-known was the Setanta Sports Cup, which was lifted by the Rebel Army at Turner’s Cross in 2008 after a 2-1 victory over Glentoran.

That was just one adventure of many that have taken place between City and clubs from the Irish League.

These competitions started life after the split, when the organisation that would become the FAI broke away from the IFA and set up a federation for the south in 1921. The Dublin and Belfast Inter-city Cup was one of the first cross-border competitions and this ran from 1941 to 1949.

This was replaced by the North-South Cup and that turned into the Blaxnit Cup and Cork Hibernians managed to get to three consecutive finals. They lost two and won one, with their 5-3 aggregate victory over Coleraine from County Derry in 1972 still remembered as one of the club’s greatest days.

Once that folded, the Texaco Cup and Tyler Cup became the next attempts at an all-island football competition. The one that lasted the longest was the Setanta Sports Cup and that came into being in 2005. City qualified by finishing in second place in the 2004 Premier Division and they opened their all-island campaign with a 1-0 victory over Shelbourne, a game that was decided by a 59th-minute Denis Behan goal.

They failed to get out of the group but they had an opportunity to become all-island champions the following year when they beat Shelbourne 2-0 in the semi-finals. This set up a rematch of the 2005 FAI Cup final against Drogheda United, and Damien Richardson’s team went out for revenge. Things didn’t go according to plan as Mark Leech scored in extra-time at Tolka Park and the Drogs won the first trophy of the season.

City got to the semi-finals again in 2007 and they were beaten by a late goal from Linfield’s Aidan O'Kane at Windsor Park in Belfast.

2008 was their year. They came second in their group and knocked out Derry City in the semi-finals with Timmy Kiely scoring the only goal of the game at the Brandywell. On the opposite side of the draw was Glentoran, who had to travel all the way down to Cork for the final.

Over 5,000 people turned up and packed Turner’s Cross to the rafters for the all-island final. They saw Kyle Neill score the opening goal in the 12th minute and this gave the Irish League side the lead. Dan Murray knocked in the equaliser at the start of the second half and Liam Kearney scored the winner into the Shed End with just 15 minutes left.

That crowned City as all-island champions and it brought the Setanta Sports Cup to Turner’s Cross for the first and only time.

There was no repeat as City finished second in their group in 2009 and they missed out on a place in the next phase of the competition. Sligo Rovers progressed at their expense and lost to St Patrick’s Athletic in the semi-finals.

The Rebel Army last entered the Setanta Sports Cup in 2013 and they reached the semi-finals by beating Cliftonville and Crusaders. They were drawn against Shamrock Rovers and the two teams played out a 1-1 draw in Tallaght Stadium. City thought they did enough to get to the final when Daryl Kavanagh scored into the Shed End and made it 3-2 on aggregate in the 87th minute but Billy Dennehy swung in a free-kick and that sent the Hoops through on away goals.

SCUPPERED

The next cross-border competition was the United Union Champions Cup and this came into being in 2019. Dundalk won the inaugural edition by beating Linfield over two legs, and a combination of the pandemic and scheduling issues quickly scuppered any plans for this tournament to be held in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Even though City missed out on this, memories of the trip to Belfast in 2016 have remained in supporters’ minds. Sean Maguire scored both goals against Linfield and that qualified City for the second round of a European competition for the first time since 2007.

This summer is a new challenge for City, as they will be entering into a totally new competition. This means there are plenty of opportunities for Danny Murphy and his players to create new stories for the club on the all-island stage.