Cork City host Derry City in final league outing before Cup final
Matthew Kiernan of Cork City in action against Gavin Whyte of Derry City. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
One last Premier Division fixture, One more evening at Turner’s Cross, one last game for Cork City to use as preparation for the FAI Cup final with Shamrock Rovers on November 9.
Cork City remain winless since their Cup triumph over St Pat’s at the start of October and enter tomorrow’s meeting with Derry City still searching for just their fifth league win of a wretched 2025 campaign. And so, this becomes a fixture in name but an audition in substance – a chance to sharpen the edges of the 3-4-3 system Nash has employed in recent weeks, and give a few more players a runout before the final act.
For Derry City, their slim league title hopes were extinguished on Wednesday evening after Shamrock Rovers got the result they needed against Galway United, finally sealing the title with a game to spare. Tiernan Lynch’s men now arrive at the Cross looking to lock down second place in the table.
They come into this one off the back of a win against Rovers, as they condemned the league champions to three defeats in a row with a 2-1 win at the Brandywell last Sunday. Brandon Fleming’s first half-goal and Sadou Diallo’s late strike sealed the result, even if Rory Gaffney netted a late consolation for Rovers in the 98th minute.
That result took Derry’s record to three league wins in a row, extending their unbeaten run to eight games. They have not been beaten since Drogheda United knocked them out on penalties in the FAI Cup on August 16. They travel south armed with momentum.
Yet for all that Derry form, the timing here feels almost favourable for Ger Nash’s side.
Their 1-1 draw in Sligo last Saturday offered something to cling to – not in volume of chances – but in resilience, in structure, in the way City survived long spells under pressure, struck when the moment arrived through Alex Nolan, and conceded only to a penalty they had every right to complain about.
It was a night where they looked, at long last, like a side preparing for something rather than desperately trying to survive.
More encouraging still is the slow and overdue return of bodies.
Harry Nevin and Matthew Murray are tracking close behind. None of it guarantees anything in a cup final, but it is the first hint in months that things are finally looking up.
Tomorrow will not rewrite the league table. It will not undo relegation. But it can change the mood, stiffen the spine, breathe a little oxygen into tired lungs. One more performance to convince themselves that the spark still lives. Ideally, a result to go with it.
Because after everything – the dreadful away results, the gloom, the hope turned to disappointment – there remains one chance at immortality in Dublin. One last shot at a season City supporters will never forget for the right reasons.
Tomorrow night is the dress rehearsal. The real story waits nine days away.
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