Cockhill ‘buzzing’ with Cup fever: Peter Doherty

For Peter Doherty, it has always been about Cockhill Celtic.

As a boy, he attended St Oran’s National School, next door to the Charlie O’Donnell Sports Grounds.

He has worn the hoops since those formative years, save for a brief spell at Finn Harps under-19s and a stint at Institute that was cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

Doherty has been part of each of the nine-in-a-row Ulster Senior League-winning sides. He’s won the lot domestically, but Sunday’s FAI Intermediate Cup final against Rockmount represents the biggest day yet.

“It’s always something that this group of players has talked about,” Doherty said.

Gavin Cullen: A reluctant manager delivering the goods for Cockhill

Gavin Cullen took over as player-manager of Cockhill Celtic in 2015. This weekend, he leads his squad to the FAI Intermediate Cup final

“It’s amazing to get here now. We have always aspired to get far in this competition.

“We just haven’t got the rub of the green in it over the years. We’ve always had little regrets and it never felt after defeats that we were beaten well by a better team. Some of the defeats have been real sucker punches, but it’s great to be here now at last. This is a massive game for the club.

“We set the marker every year to win the League and it just hasn’t happened for us in the Intermediate.”

This year, a 3-0 win over Drumcondra FC in Dublin punched their tickets to the semi-finals for the first time and they created another slice of history when beating Ringmahon Rangers in the semi-final.

“We’ve been knocking about a while,” Doherty said. “I’ve been on this squad now for about 12 years.

“The club means a lot to me. It has created a real buzz, us getting to the final. Outside of this group, it means an awful lot to an awful lot of people. We’ll have a big crowd down there to support us.

“We have to get over the final hurdle. We’ll get our prep right anyway, but it would be unreal to get the job done now.”

A plethora of Cup successes have added considerable to the swelling sideboard in Cockhill over the last decade-and-a-bit.

Doherty came to prominence under Donal O’Brien and in 2019 he captained the Republic of Ireland amateur international team.

He said: “We want to win everything in front of us. We do really take it one game at a time. We don’t look past the next one.

“Donal took a new level of professionalism to the club. A lot of people were involved at the time, but Donal was that manager who took us to a new level. He spearheaded a lot of what we did and Gavin has done a really good job since he took it on.

“Everything is done to a tee. I couldn’t look past Cockhill for the professionalism. The way we’re looked after is complete top tier.”

Doherty has experienced the demise of the USL, which has only five teams remaining and appears on its last legs.

It’s something he believes is advantageous to Intermediate Cup foes.

He said: “When you come up against teams from Leinster and Munster, they have great league structures and have loads of different games. They have tight divisions where they’re competitive and it’s something we’re lacking. It’s a good standard with the five teams. The USL gets a hard time, but the teams in it are top level.”