20 years on: Dan Murray recalls title glory with Cork City at Turner's Cross

The celebrations after the game, you never forget... being part of and being in the middle of it. Lifting the trophy in Turner’s Cross is pretty special, whatever trophy it is really.

It was my first major trophy as a player and as a captain. That is what you are judged on or that it was I judged myself on... what you win and how you do it.

It will always bring a smile to my face. The group of people that were in that team, I’d still be speaking to... the togetherness that team had was as important as winning the trophy. But it was a good time... fond memories. It was the highlight of my Cork City career, for sure.

At the time for Cork City, we had the best team and the best players. I think everything came together for us to win the league.

BELIEF

We had an unbelievable belief that this was our year to win the league. When you look at it, it felt right that we had to win that match and to be in Turner’s Cross was as good as it can get really.

We played well on the night... everyone was buzzing for it. And the city was fully behind the club.

At the time, it was probably the biggest sporting event that weekend in Cork and that probably doesn’t happen that much with Cork City in the last few years.

But everyone was behind us and everyone was keen to get a ticket for the game, which doesn’t happen all of the time. We probably could have got over 10,000 people in, if you got everyone who wanted to be there into Turner’s Cross.

The place was pretty much full by the time we were warming up... so the buzz around the place, and the buzz during the warm-up was really good. You could hardly hear what anyone was saying.

We were ready for it and in the dressing-room, Derek Coughlan closed the door, calmed everyone down and said, ‘Lads... no excuses, let’s go!’ He was a big personality in the squad, he was a big player and his experience in the league was unreal. If he spoke everyone listened. That was part of it, and there was no ego from anyone in the squad. If someone had something to say, you listened.

Derek had won titles; he won the title up in Bohs a couple of years before. So, he knew what it was all about, and we were always going to listen to him every time he ever spoke.

I thought we were the better team on the night. I can’t remember them really having a chance. When John O’Flynn scored the first goal that settled us down completely. Then we were comfortable throughout the game.

We probably could have won by more. The goal in front of The Shed to make it more comfortable... I can remember the noise for sure after that went in.

Everyone remembers the trophy going into The Shed and stuff like that, which you probably wouldn’t be allowed to do now.

You have to buy into what Cork is like. If you buy into it, you see the better players like Steven Beattie and Danny Murphy, the sort of players who have come down to Cork and have done well. Players who have come from outside and bought into Cork, they love Cork and they are the most successful players.

TOP PARTNERSHIP

The partnership I had with Benno [Alan Bennett] was really, really good. We knew each other really well... strengths, weaknesses, who was better at what and stuff like that. It was just a build-up of years that we had been playing together.

It was a top partnership.

That goes for the back four... Hoggy and Danny Murphy, and the goalkeeper Mick Devine. We played pretty much 95 percent of the games that season.

We had the best defensive record, and that only comes from being able to play together and working on stuff like that.

For me, Damien Richardson had total confidence in the players. He let a lot of players be as good as they can be. He was honest with the players and he gave us the freedom just to go and win matches.

He had full belief in us as players and we fed off that... that he had the belief. No matter what, he’d back you all of the way.

I think those years there from 2004 up to ’09, it was brilliant and I loved it. I loved living in Cork and I loved playing for Cork City. It was my dream job to be a professional footballer and I was having the time of my life, really.

I won a couple of leagues up at Shamrock Rovers and loved playing up there, but I will always say Cork City was a special time for me to be involved in the club and I felt a massive part of the city and the club for a good few years.

When Cork City are doing well in the league or in the cup, it is the talk of the town and there is a bit more buzz in the city than say a normal week. Probably my best moment in a Cork City jersey was that night. It always brings good memories back.