All or nothing for City of Derry

Junior Cup Semi-final   |   City of Derry vs. Cooke

Judges Road   |   Saturday, 2:30pm

City of Derry’s season boils down to what happens at Judges Road this Saturday with 80 minutes now separating Richard McCarter and his players from the Junior Cup final.

2024 has been nothing short of painful for Derry, who have managed just one win in seven games in all competitions. But all is not yet lost, with Saturday’s semi-final offering the club some reward for a hard-fought campaign, which was going superbly well until an injury crisis hit the club. The importance of Saturday’s game is paramount, and McCarter knows that it will define their season.

“Pretty much,” he agreed. “We have two league games to go after this one, but this is the one we’ve been waiting on for the last few weeks.

“To be honest, I said to the players last night that I think it might have been a bit of a distraction for us, because there are a few players that have been touch and go with injuries the last couple of weeks that are looking to save themselves for the semi-final because that’s what all the talk has been about. So, they may have taken their eye off the ball slightly, so there’s no excuses now on Saturday. This is the biggest match we’ve had in a long time and we have to win it.”

City of Derry and Cooke know each other very well at this stage having already met three times this season; a 32-23 league win at Judges Road in October was followed by a 25-25 Junior Cup draw in January. Playing them as recently as last week however, will not be much of a factor according to McCarter.

“Both teams are likely to change a wee bit from what was fielded last week,” he said. “It’s a new game and we have to treat it as such. It probably gives both teams confidence heading into this week, the fact that they won. The fact for us, we know we didn’t play to our full potential last Saturday and we still caused them a lot of trouble.

"We know we have to perform for 80 minutes, and it will be a weird done because both teams will come into this fancying their chances.”

Motivation

Last Saturday, Derry went down 17-20 at Cooke in highly controversial circumstances, with the home side awarded a try that McCarter and his staff felt should not have stood, and he admits that incident may just give his team an extra touch of motivation heading into the semi-final.

City of Derry Head Coach Richard McCarter is hoping to lead his team to a final to end the season on a high. (Photo - Tom Heaney, nwpresspics)

“I think it does,” he acknowledged. “I’m not going to lie, I felt pretty robbed with the try that they got last week, and I think everyone on our side of the dug-out was the same. It’s a new game and it’s a new competition and we will just try and do our talking on the pitch.”

Saturday’s game will be the 25th for City of Derry, and the most important to date. McCarter will give players struggling with knocks every chance to prove their fitness before picking his starting 15, but no matter what team takes to the field at 2:25pm on Saturday, the any win would be priceless for those in green and black.

“It would mean everything to us,” he said. “We have done well enough over the last coupe of seaosns at this level that I think we deserve to be in a final. We have performed pretty consistently up until the New Year when we dropped off, but there is a reason for that; we’ve had a ridiculous amount of injuries and players unavailable and we’re still recovering from that a wee bit.

“This is now where we have to show our character and show how much it means to everybody, nit just myself and the other coaches, the players have to show that they really want it as well. I think we do, and I think there will be a response on Saturday.”