Protest, pressure, and cup semi-final: Cork City take on St Pat's at Turner's Cross

A week to prepare, but preparation of the worst kind. Cork City have stumbled into their FAI Cup semi-final on the back of their lowest ebb of the season – and there have been plenty of those.

The 4-0 hammering away to St Pat’s was bad enough. Following it up with defeat to Galway United in Eamonn Deacy Park – a loss that all but confirmed relegation – was worse again. No manager, no squad, no supporter wants to be staring at a Cup semi-final through that kind of fog.

And yet, Turner’s Cross tonight remains a lifeline. Their league position is effectively beyond saving, but the Cup still offers survival of another kind. Ninety minutes that can spin a dreadful season towards something else entirely. Shamrock Rovers or Kerry FC at The Aviva is only one game away.

Ger Nash’s side are not expected to make it. Not with the formbook, not with the injuries, not with the season they’ve endured. But the carrot is still there – a first FAI Cup final appearance since 2018, when they completed a remarkable run of four consecutive deciders against Dundalk.

That Dundalk team are now preparing to take City’s Premier Division spot, one win away from sealing it.

Cork City’s opponents tonight, were victorious in the Cup final two seasons ago, beating Dublin rivals Bohemians 3-1.

It is a daunting prospect. A final here, and then the Aviva. But if City could pull it off – against all reason and expectation – it would offer a consolation that doesn’t erase the league, but softens its edges. Something to carry into the long rebuild ahead.

For Nash, the days since Galway have been about stripping it back. “Naturally, we’re in the depths of how low we can feel in football,” he admitted in the aftermath. By Tuesday, at the press conference, the message was about home form, about rekindling something.

HOME COMFORT

“We've been much better at home at Turner’s Cross and picked us some good wins there,” he said, at the press conference on Tuesday. “Came from behind obviously against Shamrock Rovers to take something from the game. So we've been better in that regard.

“We're desperate to show our fans how much we care about and we want to put a result on for them and a performance on for them we get the result that we want to get.” Whether his players can perform with a protest raging above their heads is another matter. Supporters are expected to demonstrate against Dermot Usher’s ownership tonight, a backdrop Nash cannot control.

“I don't know, I don’t know what's coming in that regard,” he said. “All I can tell you is that the players, the staff, we’re fully immersed in trying to put on the best performance we can on Friday night.

“The fans that go away from home have been fantastic since I've come to the club and they pay their money to support the team.

We're going to need them on Friday night, I think they’re the most passionate fanbase in the country and look, we really need them.

“We're desperate to put on a performance for them and get a result for them.” City will have to do it without Ruairí Keating, Harry Nevin and Cathal O’Sullivan. There is some hope that Seán Murray and Matthew Murray may return.

So tonight could go only one of two ways. Win, and City book a trip to the Aviva, handing their supporters something to cling to from a season otherwise destined for the scrapheap, their worst in the Premier Division since 2020.

Lose, and the wounds rip wider still – with City needing eight points from the remaining four games to merely match the misery of 2023, where they finished with 31 points from 36 games.