Maginn Park 'a cut above' the rest

By Gary Ferry

There was no one as devastated as Liam Cutliffe on the night of March 3, 2017 as Derry City’s debut at Maginn Park ended in farce with the game abandoned due to floodlight failure. But as the Candy Stripes bid farewell to Buncrana this week, ’Nadger’ looks back with nothing but pride.

City and Limerick were tied at 1-1 midway through the first half on that night in March when the Maginn Park generator failed and the ground, filled to capacity with fans, was plunged into darkness. Within half an hour the game had been abandoned, and after weeks of preparation, the night was a failure.

It was not the ideal way for the Derry City-Buncrana relationship to start, and Cutliffe, on the Parks Committee at Maginn, felt the hurt more than most.

“I was actually devastated,” he said. “That is the only way I could describe it. I just couldn’t believe it. I heard people talking and some of the comments were unbelievable. I actually had cancelled a trip to Dublin that day and somebody said on the day of the match that I needed to be at Maginn Park because I’ve been involved here for years. It is in heart. My father was involved here and so was my uncle, and I just love this green area out here.

“But since that Derry City had a lot of bother of their own, with the Ryan McBride tragedy, so the lights was really nothing when you think about it.”

Since then however, Derry City have played 15 times competitively and each game from March all the way through to the final game against St. Patrick’s Athletic in October, went off without a hitch.

“I think we have proved since that it worked,” Cutliffe acknowledged. As long as I saw the pitch in immaculate condition I was happy and I have seen a lot of comments about the pitch.

“The pitch has received a lot of praise. In fact, on RTE on Soccer Republic one night, the man said the pitch was almost immaculate, which put me on cloud nine. I think the pitch is almost immaculate. There are a lot of part-time workers here. There are men on what’s called a FAST scheme, Peter Claherty and John Moore and of course there’s my son Adrian who spent a lot of time on it during the season, and the rest of the Parks committee. They are working for nothing, so I think the pitch was almost immaculate for the system they have here.”

Concerns

Any concerns that the people of Buncrana had about the impending invasion by Derry City and its fans were quickly dispelled, with a welcoming and friendly atmosphere a key component of match nights.

““On the weeks leading up to Derry coming here there was a lot of talk around the town and people were worried what was going to happen,” Cutliffe revealed. “But not one thing has happened. I don’t think that there has been one bit of bother. I’ve had no complaints. People would know me around the town and people would come to me but everything has been first class as far as I’m concerned.”

Derry City will return to the Brandywell in 2018, but they do so grateful for the efforts of the Inishowen community in accommodating the club for the past ten months. It is a chapter in the club’s history which will stand out above others.

“I think Buncrana will miss them,” Cutliffe said. “I wouldn’t say truthfully I’ll miss them because there’s a lot of work that goes on on match days from the morning on. I’ve been in here from 2-11 on match day. I was in yesterday morning from 6:20am-8:20am raking off grass for match day. There’s a lot of work that goes on here that people don’t see. I take a lot of pride in it.

“We gave Derry City everything they wanted. We did our best and we couldn’t do much more for them.