Third-time lucky Bennett: 'This is one of the high-points of my career'

Over his time as a player with Cork City, Alan Bennett has constantly been a solid presence in the defence.

He has had many proud and memorable occasions to enjoy as a City player and there is no doubt Sunday’s victory over Dundalk in the FAI Cup Final at the Aviva Stadium ranks up there with one of his proudest.

When Sean Maguire found the back of the net to help bring the cup to the Southern Capital, it helped finally secure Bennett’s ambition to pick up a FAI Cup winners medal.

Speaking to the Extratime.ie after the third FAI Cup success in City's history, Bennett expressed his pride at bringing a cup winner's medal back to Leeside.

“For myself it was third time lucky,” he said.

“When we won the league in 2005, we did not turn up in the cup final against Drogheda. Last year we tried not to lose it, but we were up against a good Dundalk team.

“This year I just couldn’t see myself losing again. All week I was just thinking about McMillan and thinking about Kilduff and what I could do to keep them quiet.

“The mere thought of losing another final was just petrifying me.”

In a season which has seen Dundalk get all of the praise for their Europa League exploits, Cork City’s excellent work and progression has gone under the radar.

John Caulfield’s side have been focused and determined to finally claim a piece of silverware of their own, and the mental euphoria of beating the Co.Louth side in a game when there was something at stake is only going to fuel the belief for a Cork trophy charge again in 2017.

“When we played our semi-finals at the same time and they drew and had to replay, a few people asked me in between their original tie and replay who did we want and I said Dundalk every single time.

“We wanted to beat Dundalk in a final because if you don’t, there would question marks hanging over us still.

“As I said, this is the third time we have beaten Dundalk this season. We deserve a lot of credit as a group, as a squad and as a club.

“If it wasn’t for them having such a great season, I think we would have gotten even more praise I think for what we have done,” added the emotional centre back.

“This definitely was one of the high-points of my career.

“We’ve had a great season, with 21 clean sheets from 33 , Maguire’s been top scorer. We really deserved this.”