2024: The Cork City Story

Let’s make no bones about it, Cork City endured a tough ten months during the 2023 season in the Premier Division – but 2024 was all about their recovery in the First Division.

And so it proved as they waltzed to a top-flight return, leaving all of their rivals for dust in a one-sided automatic promotion race.

But with 2024 behind us, Tom O’Connor takes a look at the key components which made their latest First Division title success such a routine one…

Recruitment of League of Ireland knowhow

In the dugout, First Division promotion-winning boss Tim Clancy was appointed with the Trim man lured to Turner’s Cross seeking redemption after a tough spell in charge of St Patrick’s Athletic having previously led Drogheda United to the top-flight.

Looking to bring winning experience to the pitch, former Premier Division winning midfielder Greg Bolger was lured back to the club to bring a sense of grizzled steel to the engine room with the mercurial Jack Doherty – plunderer of 18 goals in 2023 for Cobh Ramblers – recruited for the attacking department. 

Alongside Bolger, former Ireland under-21 midfielder Sean Murray was signed, initially on loan, from Irish League outfit Glentoran. The 31-year-old had been with Dundalk for their Europa League run in 2020, when the Lilywhites reached the group stages.

Evan McLaughlin also joined from Derry City in search of first team football, having struggled to nail down a regular spot at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium.

The final piece of the jigsaw came with the cross-county swoop for Cobh Ramblers’ Charlie Lyons.

The defender is a former Preston North End Academy player and starred in the First Division for the Rams during his four seasons there after returning from England. With over a century of First Division appearances (including 25 in the 2022 season for Galway United), the Inishvilla native was one of the standout defenders in the league.

Bradley Wade’s arrival

Looking at the most successful teams in the First Division, reliability between the sticks is a must.

And while the likes of Galway United (2023) and Shelbourne (2021) relied on the experience of Brendan Clarke (who will be 40 this year), Cork City took a different approach for their 2022 title bid by putting trust in David Harrington.

The now 24-year-old grasped it with both hands and has gone on to receive international call-ups with Ireland and Wales, while being a regular at Fleetwood Town.

City looked to repeat the trick for 2024 with the recruitment of Bradley Wade.

The then 23-year-old was relatively inexperienced with less than 50 senior league appearances, however he was targeted by Clancy while at St Patrick’s Athletic and a transfer to the Richmond Park outfit fell through due to an inability to gain international clearance.

Undeterred by his initial failure to sign the Rochdale born stopper, Clancy eventually brought his man to Leeside a year later.

Such persistence was rewarded as Wade went on to feature in 34 league games, keeping 20 clean sheets.

His first five games at Turner’s Cross were shutouts and up until the 30th August (a 3-2 win over Longford Town) he had only conceded 3 times in 14 home games.

Indeed, he also finished the season with a flourish – saving a penalty kick from Cian Curtis in a 6-0 win over Wexford in the last game of the season before being selected in the PFAI First Division Team of the Year.

Promotion of Academy stars

City have a proud reputation for being able to nurture professional playing careers in the UK.

Conor McCarthy and Sean McLoughlin were both part of title winning squads in the past decade before embedding themselves in the English league system.

Chiedozie Ogbene was a team mate ahead of lighting up the international scene and gracing the Premier League, a league in which Jake O’Brien is currently inhabiting at Everton. Alan Browne is skippering Sunderland at the top of the Championship while Fleetwood Town’s Harrington is currently involved in a tug of war between Ireland and Wales on the international stage.

In 2024, once again the Academy continued to showcase its wares at first team level in the form of jewels such as Jaden Umeh and Cathal O’Sullivan.

Umeh even secured a transfer to Benfica mid-season, with O’Sullivan picking up the Young Player of the Season award after a campaign which included some sensational strikes.

Others such as Joshua Fitzpatrick (19), Arran Healy (19) saw their breakthrough seasons fly under the radar while fellow Cork City Academy graduates Cian Bargary (24), Darragh Crowley (24) and Cian Murphy (24) continued their first team journeys after a number of seasons.

John O’Donovan (20) added ten appearances to his 15 Premier Division outings the previous season. 27 year old skipper Cian Coleman remained a fixture at the heart of the City defence after brief sojourns with Cobh Ramblers, Limerick and St Patrick’s Athletic.

Two other former academy players also returned for the 2024 season with Conor Drinan (24) racking up nine appearances before suffering a knee injury and 19-year-old Harry Nevin coming back from Preston North End to feature in 17 of City’s 36 league games.

Clancy also rewarded strong performances in the City under-20 team as Harvey Skieters (19), Noah Sowinski (18), Zach Dunne (20), Matt Murray (17) all featured at times throughout the campaign.

Story of the Season

Munster Senior Cup

An Under 20 Cork City side lost on penalties to Wilton United in mid-January.

FAI Cup

After Malik Dijksteel’s winner at home to Finn Harps in their first game in the competition, City faced Derry City at home – where a Sam Todd header was enough to see the visitors through.

First Division

City sprinted out of the proverbial blocks, conceding once in their opening seven games to pick up five wins and two draws- away to Finn Harps and Treaty United respectively.

Jack Doherty picked up on where he left off in the 2023 season by rattling in four of City’s first eight goals of 2024.

Draws to Wexford (home and away), Treaty (home) and UCD (away) were the only aberrations in the next series of games as the Leesiders reached the June Bank Holiday weekend undefeated with 39 points from the 51 available.

That Friday saw a trip to Athlone Town and a first loss of the campaign with Jamar Campion-Hinds’ early strike the difference between the sides.

Evan McLaughlin, who earlier in the season had netted crucial penalties against Kerry (1-0) and Treaty United (1-1), picked up a red card in the 69th minute as the hosts prevailed.

Following his suspension he returned straight to the first team and popped up with the winner against Bray Wanderers at the end of June, the third of seven straight victories for the table toppers- a run ended away at Treaty United.

However, only for Charlie Lyons’ 98th minute equaliser at the Market’s Field, it could have been much worse.

City’s next game was a goalless draw at home to Athlone Town – much like Treaty United and their four draws against City, Town were a consistent thorn in the potential champions’ side all season. With two wins (1-0 in May and 4-1 in October) and that blank scorecard in August- Dario Castelo’s men took 8 of the 12 available in their encounters with Cork City and were the only side to beat the title winners in the league.

That 4-1 loss – thanks to a 12 minute Kyle Robinson hat trick – saw City line up without Coleman, Lyons, Murray or Sean Maguire. In fact, over half the team was changed from the previous week’s draw at Treaty United.

That Treaty game also saw five alterations following the six goals shared in a 3-3 draw at the Carlisle Grounds against Bray Wanderers.

All these rotations came on the back of the First Division title being secured a few weeks previous and allowed Clancy to experiment with his team ahead of contract renewals and preparation for life in the Premier Division.

Involved in this part of the conversation are strikers Ruairi Keating and Seani Maguire who arrived back at the club during the summer transfer window once it became clear that the top division was very much in sight.

As previously mentioned Maguire wasn’t involved in the reverse to Athlone Town and, as such, he remains undefeated in the league for City since the end of the 2016 season.

His seven strikes in 575 First Division minutes shows the 30-year-old can still find the net seven years after leaving these shores while strike partner Keating was slightly less prolific but still scored three in his last four games.

Across the season there were plenty of highlights- four league victories over Cobh Ramblers (the most exciting being the last, a 1-0 win courtesy of Keating’s 91st minute goal), O’Sullivan’s goal highlights reel, Barry Coffey’s hat trick at Mounthawk Park, Maguire’s late winner against Longford Town, the promotion winning victory over UCD and the trophy lifting hammering of Wexford.

Standout performers could be found across the team, including Wade, skipper Coleman and his centre half partner Lyons, the versatile goal assistant McLaughlin, eight goal midfielder Coffey,  engine room general Bolger and the blossoming Cathal O’Sullivan.

Indeed, five of those seven were selected on the First Division Team of the Season in a nod to just how dominant City were across the 2024 campaign.