‘We’ll have a meeting and then probably go to the pub’: Connolly celebrates remarkable FAI Cup win

After guiding Derry City to a seventh FAI Cup, Mark Connolly was temporarily brought down to earth for a press conference underneath the Aviva Stadium.

“It’s quieter in here than the changing room,” he noted.

On Monday morning, the interim Derry manager returns to his role as Director of Football to begin the process of replacing himself.

“We’ll have a meeting in the morning and then probably go to the pub.”

Six months ago, the 34-year-old was blowing on the dying embers of a solid playing career, trying to convince his former Derry manager Ruaidhrí Higgins to bring him off the bench for Coleraine in the Irish Cup final.

“You never know what will happen in life,” said Connolly. “I won an Irish Cup in May, didn’t play unfortunately, Ruaidhrí didn’t put me on the pitch.

“Life itself is crazy. Football is crazy. I’d another year on my contract and I was happy enough to stay and play but my body, my mind ... I always said once I began to lose that bit of desire I’d probably need to step away from football, because I made a career of it – shouting at referees and players. When you lose that a wee bit, it’s difficult.

“When the opportunity came up [in June] to come back to a city I live in and a club I am really fond of, it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”

So much has happened since the Derry chairman Philip O’Doherty appointed him director of football last June. In July, he tried to sign Waterford striker Tommy Lonergan but the Republic of Ireland under-21 striker is destined for a higher level.

By August, Derry were out of Europe, out of contention for the league and Tiernan Lynch was sacked as manager, leaving it to Connolly to field difficult questions, mainly about James McClean’s dispute with the club hierarchy.

“I still haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk to my family to actually go through what has happened. I was playing for Coleraine in the Irish League in May and now I am sitting here as interim Derry City manager winning the FAI Cup. It’s mad really.”

The difference at Derry City between Connolly’s playing days, specifically when they lost the 2024 Cup final to Drogheda United and Higgins was sacked as a result, is significant.

“2024 was really difficult. It was a car crash in the end, we were going for the double and ended up winning nothing. I think we had 10 or 11 boys out of contract. When you strip it back, no wonder we didn’t get anything.

“We have only three out of contract now. One of them has already signed. And there are offers to the other two. We’re in a better place, thankfully. Because there has been too much turnover. 10, 11, 12 players coming and going – it just doesn’t work. We finished second last year and 10-plus left. That makes it really hard to build a culture at a football club. We are in a better place.”

Waterford manager Graham Coughlan had a more succinct message to the fans who travelled to Dublin in huge numbers.

“We’ll come back here and we will fix today,” said Coughlan. “We hope to do what Derry have done, contesting for silverware on a regular basis. It is a huge two, three months for us, recruitment-wise, to bring the right characters into this football club.”