Shane Farrell admitted that yesterday felt like a moment of redemption after a tricky period in his playing career.
Drogheda United won a second Sports Direct FAI Cup after beating Derry City 2-0 at the Aviva Stadium, with Farrell playing over 70 minutes for the eventual winners.
The 24-year-old started the season with Shelbourne but public criticism of him by his manager Damien Duff – particularly after coming on as a sub in a draw with Shamrock Rovers in April, only to be sent off after receiving two yellows – saw his relationship with the Reds hit the rocks.
The public nature of the criticism was in stark contrast to much of the post-match soundbites that tend to emerge after games, and it eventually led to him departing the club for Drogheda in July.
Drogheda United’s Shane Farrell and Luke Dennison reflect on their side’s FAI Cup final triumph with @Corktod #FAICup pic.twitter.com/m9Nzu78IpC
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) November 10, 2024
But now with a league winners medal, after Shels went on to claim the title at the start of the month, and the cup medal picked up yesterday, Farrell is in a very different place.
“It’s been a crazy year,” he said after yesterday’s game.
“I spent half the year with Shels and they went on to win the league, so congrats to them. I love the club, I spent six and a half years with them, so I wished them all the best when I left.
“I came to Drogheda and I knew I had to change a bit, become more involved. Kev [Doherty] rang me and he had a bit of faith in me.
“I played my first game against Dundalk – a 4-2 loss – but I came off the pitch slightly happy because I got my first 90 minutes in a whole year.
“The last few games with Shels I’d be taken off after 45 minutes and my head was going. I’ve been poor, I knew I’d been poor, my confidence was shattered from the last time we played Derry in the Aviva [2022 FAI Cup final].
“It’s been a long journey, a tough journey but I’m here at Drogheda now and I’m loving every minute of it. I’m after picking up a cup medal and I couldn’t be any happier.
“I knew I had a point to prove, no matter what Damien said. He was fully right. I came onto the pitch against the best team in Ireland – Rovers – and got two silly yellow cards.
“The comments, it did affect me with social media. I’m a shy guy, I’ll always be a shy guy. The lads will tell you, when I first joined Drogheda I was so quiet.
“The last few weeks I’ve been very loud. I had the chance to redeem myself in front of 40,000, live on telly, just to show people I’m still here and still a good player and hopefully I did that.”
Farrell set up the opener yesterday, picking out the unlikely figure of Andrew Quinn with a deep delivery from a free kick, the defender producing a superb finish to set Drogheda on their way.
“I didn’t plan it with Andy but during the week we’ve been hitting the back post,” he said of preparations in training.
“Since I came in I’ve taken over the setpieces from Darragh Markey. We were in Abbotstown on Saturday and we were working on hitting the back post.
“Every corner I hit – the Aviva is so big – I hit front post and it wasn’t working. I stuck the extra bit on it and it went to Andy and he scored.”
And the man behind much of those plans that were put in place to upset the favourites Derry – manager Kevin Doherty – was given special praise by Farrell.
“Kev’s been unreal. Since I’ve come in he’s just stuck an arm around me and told me he loves me as a player, and loves me as a fella.
“Before we left on the bus he put his arm around me and told me absolutely loves me, and goes, ‘forget what happened this last time, this all about you – redemption.’
“Thankfully we came out on the right side.”
