FAI Cup romantics look to Waterford’s potent front pairing to seal victory for the ages

The unique pairing of Derry City and Waterford will attract at least 34,000 fans to Dublin 4 to witness Sunday’s FAI Cup final on the Aviva Stadium’s new hybrid surface.

The old boxing adage that styles make fights applies to this meeting of two recently rejuvenated clubs.

Derry City will aim to control possession and play their way through a Waterford defence that is marshalled by former Republic of Ireland international Kevin Long and John Mahon.

Waterford, guided by Graham Coughlan since the Dubliner replaced Jon Daly as manager back in May, will adopt a defensive stance until the opportunity arises to spring from their low block.

The best example of Waterford’s threat was seen in last month’s cup semi-final when Tommy Lonergan’s 58th-minute goal silenced the Dalymount Park faithful just as Bohemians’ constant pressure seemed certain to yield an equaliser.

After Connor Parsons’s shot was blocked down on the edge of the box, Waterford broke in an instant. Pádraig Amond latched on to a long ball and fed Lonergan, who outpaced Patrick Hickey and blasted to the net.

Amond and Lonergan, with 36 goals between them in the league and cup this season, will punish Derry’s adventurous spirit if the Candystripes stay true to their natural game.

When Derry City’s former captain Mark Connolly took interim charge of the team in August following Tiernan Lynch’s departure, he gave his squad a licence to play football.

“In Mark’s first weekend, it was sort of like, ‘Just forget about the last six months’,” said Michael Duffy, the Derry skipper. “‘I want you to go and play football. Right from the back, take risks the whole way’.

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“We worked on it in training every day. Mark is like, ‘I don’t care if you give the ball away. It’s my fault. Everything’s on me. I want to see you express yourself. I want to see you be brave, to try things.’ As footballers, that’s all you want to hear.”

There can be little doubt that Connolly freed Duffy to cut loose, with the 2025 Player of the Year scoring 11 goals in his last 10 games. Darragh Burns is also enjoying the freedom to raid off the right since arriving from Grimsby Town. The same goes for James Clarke, who was signed from Bohs this season to spearhead attacks from midfield.

Still, Connolly was faced with an unenviable situation after Derry were knocked out of Europe in July and sat 21 points behind league leaders Shamrock Rovers. Only 34, the Clones native was two months into his new role as director of football when the club hierarchy became embroiled in an unedifying back-and-forth with James McClean.

Despite the messy situation, McClean’s brother Patrick has somehow managed to produce the best form of his career, having also returned to his boyhood club to play alongside his famous older sibling.

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A haphazard plan to use the former Republic of Ireland winger in midfield proved such a poor decision that it almost torpedoed a year when Derry – internally at least – expected to challenge Shamrock Rovers for the Premier Division title.

“Patrick has been unbelievable,” said Duffy. “There’s been a lot of noise around James this year, which I’d imagine is tough. Paddy’s his brother, they’re really, really close.

“Down in Galway [for the cup semi-final against Galway United], he was incredible. I know I scored the two goals but the defence that day, I think, overall won the game for us.”

The winner on Sunday will qualify for next season’s lucrative Europa League qualifiers, which will surely lead to their entire season being studied by football scholars for lessons on how to turn a full-blown crisis into silverware.

Waterford were bottom of the league after 14 games when Coughlan was announced as Daly’s successor in May. There soon followed a 13-match unbeaten run, bookmarked by defeats to Shamrock Rovers, while also including victories against Athlone Town and Sligo Rovers in the cup.

Coughlan, like Connolly, has brought the best out of an underperforming squad of players.

In Portuguese wing back Benny Couto, Waterford have an assist machine while Norwegian winger Jørgen Voilås and English midfielder Noah Mawene add a quality that is above the usual League of Ireland standard.

If Lonergan and Amond cannot puncture Derry’s defence in transition, they could hurt them off setpieces.

If Derry play to their potential, they should atone for an abysmal end to the 2024 season when former manager Ruaidhrí Higgins was down to 14 fit players for the cup final loss to Drogheda United.

If Brian Maher has done enough to convince Connolly that his wrist issue can be risked ahead of Tom Norcott in the Derry goal and Adam O’Reilly is fit to run midfield, only three returning Derry players will be tasked with making up for the no-show at the Aviva Stadium two years ago.

The smart money is on Derry to complete an emphatic turnaround in 2026, but a more romantic ending would see Lonergan powering a headed winner similar to Brian Gardiner’s goal that captured Waterford’s last FAI Cup in 1980.