WHAT'S ANOTHER YEAR? (45th time lucky?)

44 years have now passed since Waterford held the FAI Cup. The heartache of 1941, 1959, 1968, 1972 and 1979, finishing runners up on 5 occasions hurt. But the cup campaign of 1980 started with a 5-1 hammering of Thurles Town, with goals from Al Finucane, Paul Kirk, Gardner, O’Mahony and another Kirk goal. Talk at the time was the reports Sid Wallace was on the verge of a loan move to his hometown team Wigan. The club was to receive a £20,000 payment for the transfer and the English club had an option to buy after the two-month loan finished. A blow it would be to the Blues, but Wallace was still to play a huge part in Waterford’s FAI Cup campaign.

Waterford 1980 FAI CUP winners; Back (l-r) Larry Murray, Mark Meagan, Al Finucane, Ger O’Mahoney, Mick Madigan, Tony Dunphy, Brian Gardner. Front (l-r) Eamon Coady, Sid Wallace, Vinny McCarthy, Peter Thomas, Tommy Jackson, & Park Kirk.

The win gave Waterford a home draw in the second round against Cork United. The draw obviously helped the Blues, but there would be a hoodoo to lay to rest. Amazingly it had been 18 years since a Waterford side had knocked a Cork club out of the FAI Cup. You had to go back to 1962 and a 2-1 victory over Cork Hibernians for that. On the day there would be only one winner and that jinx was ended. The visitors were having an awful league season (they would lose 20 of 30 league games) and Tommy Jackson’s men were in unforgiving mood. After 16 minutes Mick Madigan scored the opening goal. In an action packed second half Cork took hold of possession for the first twenty minutes and a back four of Dunphy, Finucane, Gardiner and O’Mahoney had to be on their toes. The game was still in the balance but that was until Phil Neiland pulled down Sid Wallace in the area and Mr. Mulhall from Dublin had no hesitation on awarding a penalty. In the perusing argument over the award of a spot kick, Punch was sent off for the Cork side and Larry Murray finished the spot-kick with aplomb to double the Waterford lead. The crowd of just under 2,000 saw Murray score his second late on, giving Waterford a handsome 3-0 and a place in the third round.

Athlone Town would be next up. The Saint Mel’s Park boys had beaten Allied Irish Banks 4-1 and Sligo Rovers 2-0 to get to this stage. Now managed by former Bohemians striker Turlough O’Connor, the Midlanders were going through an exciting rebuild.  They had just won the 1979/80 League Cup beating Saint Patrick’s Athletic 4-2. Waterford had suffered a big loss before the game when Larry Murray failed a fitness test, so Tommy Jackson put himself in the team.

It was a scrappy affair with both sides frequently giving the ball away too easily. On 12 minutes Sid Wallace thought he had scored the opening goal, but Tom Conway managed to head off the line. Just after the half-hour mark, Waterford had a big let-off. From a corner, Harry McCue headed just past Peter Thomas and although the keeper got his hands to the ball, it ended up in the back of the net. Luckily the ref had seen that McCue had pushed Kirk into Thomas and a collective sigh of relief could be heard from the crowd of over 3,000 at Kilcohan Park.  Tommy Jackson then accidentally wiped out his own player Vinny McCarthy who was replaced by Brendan Carey.

It was end-to-end stuff in the next 45 minutes. Brian Gardner shaved the crossbar after 50 minutes. Athlone countered with Dennis Clarke spurning a great chance shooting high over Thomas’s bar. Eugene Davis then tried his luck, but to no avail. Captain Al Finucane the crafty veteran pushed his side on. Eventually the breakthrough would come on the hour. A Mick Madigan corner was sent over and struck the crossbar, the rebound fell straight to Gardiner and the defender placed his header back over Smyth and into the visitors’ goal. Athlone had a lot of possession afterwards, but Waterford held on to the 1-0 win to the delight of the home crowd.

Limerick United would await Tommy Jackson’s men in the semi-final with Saint Patrick’s Athletic facing off against Bohemians in a Dublin derby in the other half of the draw.

Both sides played out a thrilling game of football when they met six days into April. Waterford would win two penalties, but only Tommy Jackson’s converted spot kick was tucked away that afternoon as the game ended in stalemate. Limerick probably could have done without the reply as Eoin Hand was on the verge of winning the League Championship with Limerick, an outstanding feat from an outstanding manager who would go on to manage the Republic of Ireland. Strangely, Limerick were very pedestrian and slow out of the blocks with Waterford the better side in the early exchanges on a rough, bumpy pitch so it was a surprise when they took the lead just after the hour. Pat Nolan’s right wing free was headed away by Mark Meagan but Tony Meaney headed the ball back over the static Blues defence for Johnny Walsh to seize the opportunity and put Limerick ahead against the run of play.

Instead of licking their wounds Waterford responded with fire and passion, embodied by Mark Meagan who was having a barnstormer. It would be his run into the Limerick penalty area where Eoin Hand sent him crashing. Mr. Farrell the referee pointed immediately to the penalty spot. Larry Murray stepped forward, but his effort was brilliantly saved by Kevin Fitzpatrick.

Was it going to be one of those days? It certainly felt like it!

16 minutes from the end that went out the window when Waterford again won a penalty when Mark Meagan again was sent tumbling by Noel O’Mahoney. This time player manager Tommy Jackson took the spot kick and successfully converted it for 1-1 which stayed the way until the end.

Whatever drama the 1-1 draw had thrown up that early April day in Dalymount, it was not only equalled, but also bettered four days later when the teams replay served up a five-goal thriller. This time the venue was Milltown – home of Shamrock Rovers. Not only was the atmosphere fantastic but with a tighter ground, stand and terraces right up on the pitch and boasting probably the best playing surfaces anywhere it made perfect sense. That afternoon really produced the proverbial “game of two halves” as Waterford raced into a 3-0 lead only to nearly see it all evaporate in front of them.

Larry Murray enjoyed his return to his old haunt and set up Sid Wallace to score the opening goal of the game on 19 minutes. Wallace had been back on loan from Wigan and again proved essential to Waterford winning this tie. Before Eoin Hand’s men could recover from that blow, they went 2-0 down two minutes later when Vinny McCarthy’s corner was powerfully put away by Tony Dunphy. It seemed the game was well out of the reach of Limerick on 34 minutes when Paul Kirk added a third with the Blue & white in the 9,000-crowd delirious with excitement.

With nothing to lose Limerick gave it their all in the second half. It was a complete reverse of what had gone before as Waterford were outplayed.  Just minutes after the restart, the Blues were lucky to see a Hulmes shot rebound off Meagan and go narrowly wide. Players stood off and the lack of concentration was there for all to see minutes later when a free kick from Nolan was headed home in the area by Des Kennedy. It got really interesting when Johnny Walsh cracked in a superb goal on 70 minutes to light up the game. Tommy Jackson came on as a sub to put the finger in the leaking dam as United pushed even harder for that goal to bring them level. But Eoin Hand’s team could not deliver another shot on target as Waterford, thankfully, stumbled over the line to victory.

The hottest ticket in town on the 20th of April 1980 was a ticket to watch Waterford Football Club play Saint Patrick’s Athletic in the FAI Cup Final at Dalymount Park. And the Blues faithful fans would travel in their droves to see if Tommy Jackson’s men bridged an all too long 43-year gap.

Above; Goalscorer Brian Gardner celebrates after the final whistle. Right: Saint Patrick’s goalkeeper Jim Grace trying to keep out both Tommy Jackson and Mark Meagan.

Charlie Walker’s Saint Pat’s side had already played in a domestic cup final, losing the League Cup to Turlough O’Connor’s superb Athlone Town side so the man who discovered a certain Paul McGrath would not want a double domestic defeat on his CV. Athletic had quality like Joey Malone, Willie Roche, Derek Carthy and of course Jackie Jameson, arguably the finest player to play League of Ireland (and shamefully not capped for his country) and it was the genius of Jackie Jameson that Waterford would have to keep intact that afternoon. Jameson was as slippery as an eel, evading tackles and throwing defenders with a sway of his hips. Everything was set for a classic final. Thousands had travelled. Some by bus, some by train, some by car. The beginning of a thousand different stories would start that day and are still being regaled with fierce pride to a new generation. There was a swirling wind that day and the bumpy pitch didn’t do either of the teams any favours for a crowd of 18,000 that paid £26,000 on the gate. Peter Corcoran would be given the honour of leading the Blues out onto the turf.

Waterford lined up: Thomas, O’Mahony, Dunphy, Finucane, Gardner, Meagan, Madigan, McCarthy, Murray, Wallace, Kirk. Subs Jackson for McCarthy (73) Coady for Wallace (83)

The first few exchanges were tentative. Wallace and Kirk up front wouldn’t get much spare change from the Saint’s Roche and Murphy. Murphy seemed to win everything in the air that afternoon. Finucane was given the task of looking after the mercurial Jameson. He stuck to Jackie like a rash in that opening half. Soon after, Tony Dunphy went in the book making it awkward for the towering defender for the rest of the game - another booking and it was a red card in a cup final.

Playing against the wind the Dubliners had the first real chance of the afternoon. Jameson managed to lose Finucane for a moment, rode two tackles and set up Tony Higgins, but Peter Thomas dived to smother the ball. It would be the first of many important saves the veteran would make that day. Waterford countered with Sid Wallace’s header from a Mick Madigan cross, but it was high, wide and handsome. Then in the 22nd minute the goal that would end the famine arrived.

Larry Murray was going like a train down the right-hand flank but was fouled by Munnelly. Murray still had possession, but referee O’Sullivan from Cork hauled the play back and awarded a free kick. Bodies were thrown in the box. Brian Gardner made his way forward. Man-to-man marking. Shirts being pulled, moves being made, positions being taken. Murray looked into the box, took a few steps and delivered the ball high into the area. A sea of heads went towards the white leather object in the sky. They all missed. Except Gardner. Coming up from the back, the 21-year-old Preston man with a knack for important goals rose high to place a superb header which cracked the upright before resting in the net past the helpless Jim Grace in the Saint Pat’s goal.

Waterford 1-0 Saint Patrick’s Athletic.

 A sea of blue and white erupted with a roar that could be heard back in The Kings Bar in Lombard Street. A roar that if anyone was in Johnny Hearne’s that moment would have dropped a hammer on themselves with the fright. A noise that would shatter Waterford Crystal. Waterford almost made it two from another set piece when Vinny McCarthy’s corner was headed by Al Finucane onto the crossbar with Grace in no-man’s land. What a second goal would have done for the team and supporters alike at that point.

 The Saints came straight back with Peter Thomas making an outstanding vital save from Jackie Jameson seven minutes before the break. You could see the heartbreak written over the faces of the Saint Patrick’s fans. A couple of minutes into the second half Thomas made a crucial save from Niall O’Donnell as Athletic kept knocking on the door. With 20 minutes left top goalscorer Carthy came off for Mick Wright and Blues manager Tommy Jackson threw himself into the fray replacing Vinny McCarthy and then Eamon Coady replaced Wallace with seven minutes left. And the men playing uncharacteristically in white that day would not buckle. Time eventually ran out on Saint Patrick’s as Waterford celebrated finally ending a gap of 43 years to win the Blue Riband.

Al Finucane lifted the famous old trophy soon after and 20,000 people turned out to see the team come back of the bridge FAI cup champions for only the second time ever.