Familiar Faces

The Blues and the Candystripes have been more friends than enemies throughout their history – perhaps helped by the distance between the two cities – and fans of both always receive warm welcomes from the other after making the 250-mile journey from one end of the country to the other. The clubs have been playing each other for forty years now since Derry’s admission to the League of Ireland, but Sunday’s clash will be the most significant meeting of the two to date.

Waterford have three ex-City players in their ranks with defender Hayden Cann, midfielder Evan McLaughlin and substitute goalkeeper Arlo Doherty all in their first year with the club. Englishman Cann spent last season at the Brandywell and many fans were disappointed when he was allowed to leave at the end of the year. Doherty spent last year there too, although he was never given the opportunity to make his debut. McLaughlin is a Derry native who spent his first four seasons with his local club. He played for Cork City in last year’s cup final defeat to Shamrock Rovers so it’ll be consecutive appearances for him and particularly special taking on his hometown.

 

Evan McLaughlin in his Derry days

There are also three former Blues playing for Derry at present and all will likely feature on Sunday. Centre back Patrick McClean won the First Division here as a 20-year-old in 2017. He has gone on to have a fine career and has been exceptional for City in recent weeks. Adam O’Reilly made his first League of Ireland appearances for Kevin Sheedy’s Waterford on loan from Preston North End in 2021. Only 19 at the time, he was perhaps the strongest performer in a struggling team and has gone on to be a mainstay as a box-to-box midfielder for Derry over the past four seasons. Former Arsenal youth James Olayinka spent 2025 in Waterford’s midfield where he was occasionally sublime, but lacked consistency and was released at the end of the season. He has been in and out of the Foylesiders’ team this year having started fourteen league games and is likely to be a substitute in the final.

There is one more ex-Blue involved with the Candystripes. Corkman Anthony Fennelly is City’s goalkeeper coach, working with Brian Maher and Thomas Norcott. However, he is better-known here for his years between the posts for Waterford United. Fennelly was, most notably, the goalkeeper throughout the run to the FAI Cup semi-final under Paul Power in 2001, including some penalty shootout heroics against UCD that year and he is still a popular visitor to the RSC.

 

Patrick McClean was a popular figure in Waterford

Of course, the most famous alumnus of both clubs is the legendary Jimmy McGeough who holds a remarkable record of winning the Irish League with Derry in 1964/65 and five League of Ireland titles with Waterford over the following seven seasons. The Belfastman was truly one of the greatest Blues and his signing coincided (not accidentally) with a thirteen-game winning streak that carried Waterford to that first championship and changed the trajectory of the club forever. Later, he managed the Blues to the First Division title in 2002/3 to consolidate his legendary status on Suirside even more.

It is ironic that the Blues face a team led by Mark Connolly (as caretaker manager) in the cup final given that Jon Daly pushed hard to sign him as a defensive lynchpin last winter. The Monaghan man had been released by Derry, but chose to sign for Coleraine instead of moving south and retired just months later.

Then, when Connolly was appointed as Derry’s Director of Football, he went all-out to sign Tommy Lonergan from Waterford. City reportedly bid a league-record €180,000 for the Ireland Under-21 star in July, but Waterford turned all offers down. That decision may well turn out to be even more pertinent next Sunday as the league’s top scorer seeks to add one or two more goals to his tally from a magnificent season.