FAI Ford Cup Final - Bohs Win On Penalties

Absolutely gutted.

I've been to a number of games where Derry have won on penalties and it was a great feeling, but losing on them is the opposite side of the coin, devastated after the match, and I'd say the players feel even worse losing on penalties. Gutted.

Well, the big day itself got off to a stuttering start, I headed in to Connolly to meet Scoops to get theDART out to Lansdowne, ended up getting a lift into the station, leaving me way ahead of schedule, and the bar in the train station wasn't open, bummer or what, OK it might have been only 10.50am but a drink wouldn't have went a miss.

So headed out towards the RDS area with Scoops and meet up with Ciaran, Big Daddy and The Hitman at around 11.50am, outside of Paddy Cullens, which didn't open until 12.30pm - real run of bad luck with the bars yesterday. So we ended up across the street in Madigans??? (not to sure about the name of the pub), where the Twins Neil & Darren joined us and the beer started to flow, about an hour and a half after my first sneaky beer of the morning before leaving the house.

We then headed over to Paddy's after a while, and ran into a few heads down from Derry (the bar most have made a killing). Photos from the bar and the match can be found here - http://picasaweb.google.com/willymccann/20081123FAIFordCupFinal.

Well, before heading over to the RDS, the pre-match cocktail had to be bought - which was great fun ordering in a packed bar, so we went for a simple one - Bailyes & Creme de Mont - lovely stuff, and great fun asking the barmaid for 8 of them, that round coming in at just under 80 quid.

So over to the RDS it was, we were in the Anglesea Stand, and I'd have to say it was a marked improvement in the RDS from the Cup Final last year, with the Grandstand up.

I won't do a match report, as I'm still pissed off about it and would end up having to censor it 10 times over, but one can be found here - http://www.derrycityfc.net/season/08/news/displaystory.php?storyid=411.

2-2 after 120 minutes of play, with us conceding a soft goal and a dodgy penalty. Both teams had great chances to win it in extra-time with both keepers making excellent stops, so it came down to penatlies - which I just read their now was the first time in 88 years that the FAI Cup was decided on penatlies - by jesus didn't we pick a bad time to lose.

Derry scored 3 and had two saved by Brian Murphy, the Bohs keeper - and their hero on the day, and Bohs scored 4 and missed 1 to lift the cup.

Stilled bloody gutted about the result, but it was one hell of a game to be at, with the attendance around the 10000 mark - with people reckoning it was close to a 50-50 still on fans with the odd neutral in the crowd as well.

I couldn't stay to watch the medals being given out, as I would have been standing there going fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. So it was back over to Paddy Cullen's for a few beer and also to try and get the feet warmed up, as mine felt likes blocks of ice.

And of course, yours truely had a deck of cards, so a wee game of Maverick was got going, with Big Daddy lifting the biggest pot of the day, around €16, and me not recoving too well from bets placed before the match.

There was a good bit of banter in the bar with both Derry & Bohs fans, the way it should be really, and I lived up my nickname "The Child" when I fell asleep in a packed bar - it is a true skill with which I am gifted. Afte that, it was a taxi hoome, after a great day out, just the result didn't go our way.

Absolutely gutted.

But with the performance the team put in, it can only give us hope for the new season, which at the minute is a bloody long way off, but bring it on.

C'mon the Candy Stripes