It's not the 'Enda' the road for Treaty United

Enda Curran knows the odds are against Treaty United this weekend, but he is not giving up on the possibility of a footballing fairytale.

The Limerick side come to the Brandywell on Sunday for their FAI Cup semi-final as huge underdogs, but it is a tag that Curran and his team mates have gotten used to on their terrific run in the competition this season.

Curran himself scored a fantastic hat trick in Treaty’s quarterfinal win over UCD, and he admits everyone at the club is thrilled to have come so far in such a short time.

“The mood in the camp has been very good throughout the year,” he said. “Our goal was to try and make the playoffs again considering it’s only the club’s second year. It’s way beyond our expectations to go somewhere like Derry. It’s a great occasion and we get to go up and showcase what we have. We have a lot of young players in our squad and look it will be a great occasion for them, and for the lads who have been there before we’ll try and use our experience to hopefully out on a good spectacle and we’ll give it a go.”

Still less than two seasons old, Treaty finished in the play-off places in their first year and are now just one game away from an Aviva final in their second. The club has hit the ground running since debuting at the start of 2021, with the win over UCD making people sit up and really take notice.

“Looking at the level in the First Division this year alone with the full-time teams, I think we have pitted ourselves against them well,” Curran reflected. “We’ve come out of those games with our heads held high. The thing with UCD is that we knew they were coming in on the back of a few good results, beating Dundalk and a few more, but we knew if we stuck to the game plan and just carried it out that we would have a great chance. I don’t know if we expected to win as emphatically as we did but it’s a credit to us and a credit to the management as well that we can go and compete with those teams.”

Former Candystripe

Curran himself is a former Candystripe having played at the Brandywell at the start of the 2014 season. He does not hide the fact that he remains fond of the club despite his short time there.

“I don’t know if it’s the draw I wanted,” he laughed. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Derry. It was only a short stint and didn’t work out for whatever reasons but from the minute I went up, they made me feel welcome and it will be nice to go up to the Brandywell again and see a few familiar faces.

“I was 21, I would have loved to have done it later in my career when I was a bit more mature, but I couldn’t turn down a club the size of Derry. I suppose the standout memory was that Derry hadn’t beaten Sligo in seven or eight years and I scored the winner in that game. There was a great buzz around the place after that and that was a standout.”

Curran played alongside the McEleney brothers and Michael Duffy in his short time at Derry and while he is looking forward to renewing old acquaintances, he wants just one thing from Sunday, and that’s to book a date in the FAI Cup final next month.

“It would be unbelievable,” he said. “Even to get to a semi-final for a club that was only set up in the last two years, it’s a massive achievement. Everyone around the club is absolutely buzzing with it but the players themselves are just looking to go up and hopefully get the job done. We know we’re up against it, but to get to the Aviva – myself and Marc Ludden were joking at the start of the year and we said “This is the road to the Aviva”. People were laughing at us, but here we are now just one game away. Anything can happen on the day, and we’re definitely the underdog, but it’s a label that we’re well used to.”