'Nobody expects anything from us' – Fiacre Kelleher backs Cork City to thrive in no-pressure final

Cork City are now counting down the days to Sunday and the towering task that awaits them at the Aviva: Shamrock Rovers, the league champions, and the final chance at redemption in a season that has been so disappointing.

But for Rovers, a detour first. They must travel to Athens and face AEK in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, three days before the FAI Cup final. It is a luxury of champions – and a complication too.

Dundalk know that better than most. In 2016, they ventured to St Petersburg, three days before the Cup final. They returned having been defeated in Russia, and then were beaten 1-0 by Cork City in Dublin, in the FAI Cup final.

It is a scenario that hasn't gone unnoticed on Leeside, nor by captain Fiacre Kelleher.

“That's a lot of travel for them,” Kelleher begins. “It's going to be a tough game.

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“What do they do squad-wise to rest some of the players? Do they play their full team? I think it's more of a headache for them, it's not something we have to worry about,” he remarks. 

Personally, I wouldn’t want to be travelling on the Thursday and having to play Sunday again.

The odds remain steep, the scale of Sunday huge, but the prize for an upset would goes far beyond the silverware. European football – in the First Division, no less – would transform the mood around the club, and perhaps soften the bruise of relegation.

“Not only for us as a group of players, would it mean the world, but for the fans as well,” Kelleher explains. “They don't want to be travelling to these places in the First Division. They want the club back where it belongs.

“If we can win on Sunday and give them some European football to look forward to, I'm sure they'll love that. It is massive. It will make next year incredibly better, and more enjoyable if we have European football.” 

The past few weeks have offered something rare in this campaign. Clarity, and a release. No relegation maths, just football. And with freedom, fluency has come.

“If you look at the games that we have done well in, they're probably the ones where there's not been any pressure on us,” Kelleher admits. “It's probably the games where you're talking about Sligo at home, Galway away, where it's really been, we've had to go out and win. That's probably when we struggled.

"So the semi-final, for example, against Pats, and Rovers [in the league] the week before that, nobody expects anything from us. So it probably suits us as a group at the moment.

“Especially the younger players, I feel like they can really have a go in the game when they don't have much pressure on their shoulders. So yeah, that will probably play into our favour, on Sunday.” 

Sunday shapes everything. Enthusiasm is easy, delivering is different. All they need now is one more surprise.