Super sub Danny Mullen aiming to lead Derry City to FAI Cup quarterfinals

He has been Derry City’s saviour time and time again this season, and Danny Mullen is giving Ruaidhri Higgins a headache that every manager wants.

The striker came off the bench to rescue a point against Dundalk at the Brandywell last week, a trait that has become something of a habit in 2024.

While no player wants to be known as a ‘super sub’, Mullen is certainly proving to be that, scoring four times from the substitutes’ bench, against St. Patrick’s Athletic, Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians and Dundalk. The goals against St. Pat’s and Bohemians were winners after the 90-minute mark, while only a late goal from Markus Poom at Tallaght denied the striker from scoring the winner in the 2-2 draw back in March.

Mullen, who is Derry City’s most used substitute this season alongside Daniel Kelly (16 appearances each) is now on nine goals in all competitions, and his manager is understandably delighted with his contribution.

“He's been outstanding, and when he started, he's done really well,” he said. “His attitude is incredible for an experienced striker who's played at the highest level in Scotland. To have the patience and the commitment that he's had has been really, really refreshing.

“Obviously he's not content when he's sitting on the bench at all, but he shows a brilliant attitude. I have so much respect for him, and he's a top player.”

Mullen may be needed again tomorrow night as Derry City chase an FAI Cup victory in Cork for the first time since March, 1987, when Alex Krstic hit a hat trick in a 3-1 win.

The Candystripes have had some painful nights at Cork in the FAI Cup since, most notably in 2005 when a late penalty decided a semi-final against Derry and again in 2015, when a 3-0 loss brought Peter Hutton’s time in charge to an end.

The fortunes of each club have differed wildly over the years, with Cork now building back strongly after last year’s relegation.

“There's no doubt about it, they'll be well prepared,” Higgins said. “They'll obviously want to mathematically get it done as quickly as possible, but they're going to be in the Premier Division next year and rightly so. But if you look through their team, they have a lot of top, top-quality players, and we need to be on the money.”

Mullen determined

Meanwhile, Mullen insists that Derry City have one objective at Cork City and that's to book their place in the quarter-finals of the cup.

“We’ll do our homework on them and we’ll come up with a game plan to go down there and they’ll be one objective when we go there and that’s we want to go and win the game,” he said.

“Obviously getting into the next round of the cup is massive for the club and the City as well, so we want to go and put on a performance and get through.

“It’s not league duties next week, so it’s a fresh start and we want to get through to the next round and we’ll do everything we can to do that.

The 29-year-old acknowledged that he is giving his manager a selection headache after scoring his third goal in five games.

“I’ve said it all along whenever I’m on the pitch I just want to do my best, help the team and I’ve been doing that recently,” he added. “It’s a good problem for the manager and a good problem for the squad.”

While disappointed with the score-draw against Dundalk, the former Dundee frontman feels the title still isn’t out of their grasp.

“The last few times when Shelbourne have slipped up or (Shamrock) Rovers have slipped up, we’ve done the same, so look to go and win league titles, we know we’ve got to do better.

“It was disappointing not to get the three points, Dundalk dug-in well, but we had opportunities to

“Obviously there’s still loads of points to play for, so look as a team we’ll look over where we slipped up against Dundalk and we’ll try to improve. There’s a long way still to go and we’ll be fighting right up until the end of the season.

“There’s going to be a lot of tough games between now and the end of the season, so we need to be ready for it.”