Sean Maguire: 'Both sides had chances - luckily we took ours.'

The football fairytales in the League of Ireland this season have mostly revolved around Dundalk’s run in Europe and their three-in-a-row title claim. However, Cork City striker Sean Maguire muscled in on the drama with a late, late extratime winner against his former club in Sunday’s FAI Cup final.

His goal was just reward for John Caulfield’s impressive City side who have had to go toe-to-toe with the Lilywhites over the last few seasons. The Leesiders' 1-0 cup win ended Dundalk’s domestic dominance as Stephen Kenny’s men suffered disappointment in chasing their double-double dream.

Last season with Dundalk Maguire hardly got a look in at Oriel Park, playing just six games, five of them off the bench. He didn’t even make the Lilywhites’ match day squad for the 2015 Cup Final. No doubt that makes scoring the winner in the cup final even more sweeter for the striker.

Given the central role he craved so much, Maguire has rewarded the faith put in him by Caulfield. His 18 league goals made him the top scorer in the SSE Airtricity League, he picked up the PFAI Young Player of the Year award and now he has claimed an FAI Cup winners medal.

It was a difficult final for the player who looked isolated for much of the match with Brian Gartland shackling the striker for most of the game. Maguire described himself “chasing shadows”. Dundalk dominated possession particularly in the first half but gradually City came into the match.

“Personally scoring a lot of goals this season and getting a run of games was important for me,” Maguire told Extratime.ie after the match

“We’d a lot of confidence going into this game but we knew it was going to be tough.

“At the start of the game, I’m not going to lie, Dundalk were battering us. They had a lot of possession especially in their half of the field.

“We came out in the second half with a different game plan to press high and try and get on the front foot which we did.”

A lot had been made of Dundalk’s fixture congestion as they were forced to play eight games in 21 days at the close of the league season but it was also a similar story for the Leesiders who had just one less match.

However the Lilywhites did have to squeeze an additional trip to Russia last week, only returning to Ireland on Friday after the 2-1 loss away to St. Petersburg. “In extra time there was a lot of tired bodies on both sides, myself included.”

John Caulfield added additional offensive power off the bench to try and win the game by bringing both Chiedozie Ogbene and Mark O’Sullivan on with Maguire dropping in behind O’Sullivan.

It meant more running for the 22-year-old but it opened up the game. “I dropped into the hole and Ronan Finn, all he does is make forward runs which is annoying! I’m a striker so I don’t usually track back but I had to do so then.

“Chiedozie is a great kid. You don’t get that many young kids with that speed and that power. He is only 19 years of age and he is going to have a great career. He has a lot of talent. He deserved his chance to come on and he took it. It was difficult for him coming into a very tough game between the two best teams in the country.”

It looked like Dundalk’s centre-half Brian Gartland had just about managed Maguire for all of the game. However he could only do so for 119 minutes with Maguire taking the one clear cut chance that came his way a minute before penalties were due to arrive. It was his 27^th goal in all competitions in 2016.

“The last minute winner came from ‘Beats’ (Steven Beattie) throwing it into the box, ‘Marky’ (O’Sullivan) making himself useful and it dropped to me and I hit a volley. It took a deflection but it went in. I’m absolutely delighted!

“We knew it was going to be scrappy. It was a cup final. There wasn’t many chances in the first half. Both sides had a few half chances in the second half and in extratime. Luckily enough we took ours and we are going home with the FAI Cup!”

Additional reporting by Tom O’Connor.