Cabinteely boss Pat Devlin revels in Playoff glory away to Longford

Andrew Dempsey reports from City Calling Stadium

Cabinteely boss Pat Devlin admits that Friday’s playoff defeat of Longford Town is one of his sweetest memories in football.

The former Bray Wanderers came up trumps at City Calling Stadium in a playoff once more – with memories of his unlikely 2013 miracle coming back to haunt the hosts.

“I very rarely look back, and all the records are there to be broken,” Devlin told extratime.ie on his side’s record breaking year. “Is this as sweet as all the other ones? It probably is. Of course, it is, it’s fantastic but I’m delighted for the players really.

“I’m a bit older and experienced than they are but I’m delighted for the players and the staff. They’ve been wonderful this year, everyone of them so it just gives us another elevation that’s all.

“Any club I’ve ever been at, we’ve always been written off. Whatever it is. We never had the finance to compete with the big boys but anywhere we’ve gone, we’ve gone, we’ve done a decent job and I think we’ve done a decent job here.

“I can’t do it without the co-operation of all the players and staff and that’s what I got tonight.”    

The 66-year-old added; “Longford are a very good side, make no mistake about it, but we’ve played Longford five times and we haven’t been beaten by them.

“They’ve very good players but so are my lads. We’ve different qualities, there’s a different resilience about us than there is that they have.

“We mightn’t have the ball players they have but they make up for it in many different ways. Football isn’t always about passing and moving and skill, it’s a lot of different things as well.



“With the hunger and desire, we had, and not giving up in any shape or form, it was fantastic.”