Rory Gaffney celebrates scoring his goal against Cork City in the FAI Cup Final. Photo by George Kelly
Double delight for Rovers
Shamrock Rovers defeated Cork City 2-0 in the Aviva Stadium on Sunday afternoon to complete a domestic double for the first time since 1987.
The feat was accomplished in front of a crowd of 35,252 with Rory Gaffney’s two second half goals deciding the game.
After playing ultra defensive against AEK Athens on Thursday to secure a famous result in Greece, Rovers had the opportunity to play on the front foot against Cork and spent the half trying to break down the Rebels defence.
The pivotal moment of the first half came towards the end as Cork’s Harry Nevin was shown a straight red for a terrible challenge on Josh Honohan.
Now a man up Rovers still needed to be on their ‘A’ game in the second half with Ed McGinty being called into action twice early on to make saves from Freddie Anderson and Seanie Maguire.
Eventually they would be able to make use of their man advantage. Capitalising on two errors from an inexperienced Cork defence they scored two goals within seven minutes of one another halfway through the second half.
Shamrock Rovers players congratulating Rory Gaffney on scoring his goal
Stephen Bradley spoke on the achievement as well as future ambitions after capping off a domestic season with a league and a cup double, his first time doing so in nearly ten years managing the club.
“Doubles don’t come around very often. To win takes talent, to keep winning takes real character and these players have character and personality.
“They’ve come full circle, six of them have done 2019, done the leagues and then this. It’s special for them. This is something that can never be taken away from us. It will be spoken about forever and that’s special, that’s something that’s special.”
“There can’t be a ceiling, I don’t believe in that. I thought people would have looked at me when I was saying before about us and Shels, saying we both should get Europe, thinking I was a bit naive.
“But I don’t believe in putting ceilings on what we can achieve. We’re young, we’re hungry, we’re ambitious, we want more. We’ve done Conference League a few times now, I think we need to go further. Our aim has to be Europa League.”
