'These victories don't come around too often, you have to savour them' - Cullen

Cockhill Celtic manager Gavin Cullen stood smiling at the side of Maginn Park on Sunday knowing his side have finished the season with four trophies to their name following his team’s 3-1 win over Buncrana Hearts in the Donegal Signs Cup final.  

It took 110 minutes of football before Cockhill Celtic could round off their perfect season, having already won the Inishowen League, the Inishowen League Cup, and the FAI Junior Cup, with 22-year-old Luke Rudden hammering home two goals in the last six minutes of extra-time to seal the victory for the green and white hoops. 

Cullen’s synopsis after the match focused on a team that never gave in and had the hunger to fight for the win every time they went out onto the pitch. 

“We’re delighted with the win, we have a team of players who are hungry for success, and we believe on any given day we can win it and thankfully we’ve won four competitions this year. We also won two last year, so every year we’re in the mix, which is brilliant,” Cullen said. 

“That will to win requires a real standard from the players and a real buy-in from the players and we’ve got that in abundance.” 

Despite Cockhill suffering a serious setback when Jack Mullen was issued a red card on the 61st minute when the centre-midfielder charged into a late challenge on James Adair, it appeared that the Cockhill side was more rejuvenated and found a new burst of energy the more the game progressed. 

“I think coming strong in the end comes from the belief in our ability and the belief in our players. We always go out to try and win a match. We always felt, when it was 10 versus 11 players on the pitch, we still felt we had the upper hand,” he said. 

“Now in fairness to Buncrana, they were very solid and did really well today, but I always felt we had that moment that there was another goal in us and thankfully we got it late on.” 

The match itself sparked more physical aggression than usual, with both teams refusing to give each other an inch, but Cullen confessed his frustration with referee Warren Harvey at the official slowing the match down and making, what Cullen referred to as, ‘some innocuous decisions’. 

“Look, a Buncrana and Cockhill game is always going to be tough. It’s a proper derby and a good game to watch, but I don’t think there was anything too bad in the game, I just felt the referee in particular, he was poor and was overblowing for too much which ruined the flow of the game and booked people for rather innocuous things. 

“Like the sending-off we had was a straight red card, and I don’t think anyone in the ground expected it. It wasn’t even a yellow card in my view but for me I was more annoyed with the silly things that were slowing the game down and it was him doing that, not the players. 

“But look we had to deal with that, as did Buncrana. Overall, it probably wasn’t a brilliant game of football, it was nip-and-tuck and just got exciting in extra-time, so good to get the win.” 

But for Cullen and his side now, they finished the season exactly the way they wanted to by overcoming their local rivals in the Cup final. 

“We’re going to celebrate this win now, I was joking to the lads and saying it feels like we’ve had more drinking sessions than training sessions over the last month, but the lads have been excellent, they’re a real credit and they can enjoy this.  

“You have to enjoy these moments because they don’t happen that often, some players go through their whole careers and don’t win anything, so we’re fortunate it’s happened a lot for us this season and you have to make the most of it.”