PHILIP QUINN’S FINAL VERDICT
REMEMBER, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. It was certainly a day Mark McNulty will never forget.
McNulty was cast yesterday as a villain straight from the mould of Guy Fawkes.
With his whiskers, high cheek bones and sunken eyes, McNulty wouldn’t have looked out of place among Fawkes’ brigands as they attempted to blow up the Houses of Westminster over 300 years ago.
The veteran swash-buckler of the penalty area was the one Cork City player, above all others, whom Dundalk fans wanted to string from the highest yardarm in the Aviva yesterday.
For it was McNulty who dared to taunt Dundalk in the build-up to the FAI Cup final and yesterday he illustrated, not for the first time, that he can walk the walk and talk the talk as he helped City become the first Cork team to win the double since 1951.
‘This is an unbelievable feeling. We came up as underdogs even though we were league champions. Champions by seven points and are f ***** g underdogs? C’mon,’ said McNulty in the aftermath of glory.
Was this the warm-up for another anti-Dundalk rant by the boy from Ballincollig?
‘No, no, no,’ he pleaded. ‘It just frustrates me at times, a lack of credit. We are getting it for the last two or three years, a lack of credit.
‘But listen, we seem to thrive as underdogs. Last year we were underdogs and we won the Cup. This year, we were underdogs for the league, we won the league.
‘We were underdogs for this game, and we’ve won the Cup and done the double. Surely, we are due a bit of credit now?’
They are, and McNulty certainly is.
For the veteran custodian repelled everything that Dundalk could throw at him, including the relentless insults from the ranks of the Dundalk support.
The jeers began when he fielded the ball for the first time and continued remorselessly until the third shoot-out to decide the Cup final at the Aviva came to a nerveshredding halt.
Through it all, McNulty stood tall. He was roughed up more than once in the penalty box but didn’t flinch, or react, and also executed a string of efficient saves during 120 minutes of nipand-tuck football.
But he saved the best until last and did so right in front of the Dundalk diehards who were willing him to foul up in the penalty shoot-out. Instead, he delivered. When McNulty diverted the seventh penalty, taken by Michael Duffy, away to his right, the Cup final force was with City.
‘If we lose, I’m the villain and I get the height of abuse from everyone so it couldn’t have worked out any better’
The champions had fallen behind early in injury-time, and were nine minutes from defeat when a splendidly-named Parisien, Achille Campion, rifled home an equaliser.
After Campion and the other outfield players did their part, it was time for McNulty to seize the spotlight.
It was just the way he wanted, and his joy was unfettered.
‘If we lose, I’m the villain and I get the height of abuse from everyone so it couldn’t have worked out any better,’ said McNulty.
‘To win a double in front of the Dundalk fans, who’ve given me a lot of grief, was nice. I loved it. I turned around at the end when we won, and I gave them a smile. That’s football.’
He revealed afterwards he had studied every Dundalk penalty taken over the past two years or more, and knew what the challenge was in the shoot-out — save one from five.
McNulty did better than that, he saved one from the four he faced. It was enough to silence the fevered Dundalk fans behind him and pave the way for Kieran Sadlier to score the clincher.
Being the maverick that he is, McNulty didn’t watch any of the City penalties.
Instead, he waited for the reaction of the Dundalk fans to indicate the outcome.
Right to the end, he was in their faces. Stubborn, insubordinate and steadfast, as he always has been for the club he has served boy and man.
He was 17 when he first signed for City; he’s now 37, a grizzled veteran, a double winner, yet his hunger has never been greater.
Gary Rogers, implausibly, got the Man of the Match award.
For all that Rogers kept goal well, and executed a vital save in injury time to keep the final scoreless, he played second fiddle to McNulty in the shoot-out.
It was McNulty who held the high ground. Always a rebel, and always armed with a cause.
He will always remember, remember the fifth of November.