David Sneyd

THE BEAT LIKES to stay in its lane but sometimes you do just have to acknowledge the sporting world around you and the possibility it might be able to provide a useful column intro.

Last weekend was one such occasion.

Around the time that Scottie Scheffler double bogeyed the eighth hole at Portrush, there was a fleeting hope that the best golfer in the world might somehow manage to throw The Open away.

Maybe, just maybe, Rory McIlroy had a sniff of a stunning comeback in front of a home crowd. Then Scheffler birdied the ninth and strode to another dominant victory.

This is one American who definitely doesn’t have any Cork blood.

Roughly around the same time, three hours down the road from Portrush, one historic collapse was captivating at Croke Park.

Tipperary’s second-half comeback against the Rebels was stunning as the Premier County demolished their Munster neighbours to claim the All-Ireland SHC title.

Some of their supporters filtering out of Croker weren’t quite so sympathetic, however, and there was a sense that a generational trauma was just taking hold.

“They never showed up.”

“Joke.”

“This was their year, if they never win it now, it will never happen.”

“I don’t want to overexaggerate here or anything, but Patrick Horgan needs to f*** off.”

That last line was delivered with a kind of comedic value and had as much conviction as the team’s second-half performance. There were, of course, also more comforting messages of support interspersed but the rawness of the reaction was clear. It’s the whole point of such vox-pop interviews, to draw honest opinions from the person in the street.

A curious thing happened after Off The Ball published the video on social media. The responses were overwhelmingly negative, and the broadcasters decided to delete it from their feed.

One of the arguments made as to why OTB were a disgrace/disgusting/shameful (choose your fighter) boiled down to the fact these Cork players are amateurs and were, as one poster wrote, “playing a game for us all to enjoy”.

No doubt the reception from the majority of the Cork sporting public would have been overwhelmingly positive had the planned homecoming gone ahead on Monday.

Understandably, though, “at the request of team and management,” that idea was shelved. It’s impossible to think that disgruntled punters would be lining the South Mall armed with rotten fruit and veg from the English Market to show them exactly what they thought of that second half display.

Sometimes a release of that frustration (in the case of the vox pop, not throwing rotten fruit and veg) is justified, though, and while OTB may have bowed to criticism and sanitised the rawness of the fallout from Cork’s collapse, what exactly does that serve?

Cork City’s players got a sense of the anger that has been building at their club since before a ball was kicked this season after the 2-0 defeat to Waterford at the RSC two weeks ago.

A handful of fans confronted players on the pitch as they approached the away section at full time. It was City’s eighth defeat in 13 games, with no wins.

In pre-season the club’s largest supporters’ group, Friends of the Rebel Army Society (FORAS), released a statement detailing their “concern and anger” at how club owner Dermot Usher dismissed concerns relating to rising ticket prices.

They stated that “the disproportionate increases introduced this season are short-sighted” after a 67% rise for people who buy single adult tickets online compared to 2024.

The most expensive ticket for this season was €25, and part of FORAS’ concern was around how “legitimate queries have been dismissed” by the club with an interview Usher gave to The Currency cited as an example.

“I believe the pricing is fair. If you haven’t been buying a season ticket and have been dipping in and dipping out … I do not have a huge amount of sympathy… If you want to rock up on a Friday night once a month or once every six months that’s fine, but the price will be €25,” he said.

What’s compounded all of this is that Cork have been a mess on the pitch and a malaise has set in. Tim Clancy resigned as manager on 9 May and said it was because the demands of the job had become too much.

“There’s no regrets. A club the size of Cork City needs a lot of work. The size of the club, the expectations of the club, a lot of work goes into it, and you need the structures around you as well to be able to fulfill that role,” he said.

“I think the club are trying to do the right things. But I just think the demographics have changed in the league where I think it costs a lot more money now to compete at the top of the table than it maybe did a few years back.”

The Beat illustrated as much last week, but that last paragraph from Clancy perhaps sums up that warnings have not been heeded and Cork remains a club operating in a manner that seeks short-term solutions for problems that will have long-term consequences.

Usher is the owner and a public-facing one at that. When Clancy departed he appointed highly-rated coach Ger Nash six days later.

Two weeks after that former Republic of Ireland international David Meyler was tempted home to Leeside to become his assistant. By the end of June, Usher backed his new boss with the signing of defenders Fiacre Kelleher (brother of Caoimhín) and Rory Feely from Colchester United and Crawley Town, respectively.

Nash was allowed to use his contacts’ book from his coaching days at Aston Villa and young attacker Charlie Lutz joined on loan from the Premier League club until the end of the season.

Kitt Nelson’s loan from Preston North End was extended just before goalkeeper Tein Troost departed along with Rio Shipston.

Troost was replaced when David Odumosu signed for an undisclosed fee from Cliftonville at the start of this month.

So much flux yet the fly-by nature of Dutch striker Dejanro Daniels’s spell sums up the disarray. Injuries to strikers – and highest earners – Seani Maguire and Ruairi Keating meant an emergency signing was required.

Daniels signed on 21 April and left for Kilmarnock on 7 July, and that timeframe tells a tale of Cork’s sorry season.

They were eighth that Easter Monday and 3,365 fans were at Turner’s Cross.

The last home game on Leeside was 27 June and the attendance fell to 2,276 for a 0-0 draw with St Patrick’s Athletic, during which Daniels was “remonstrating angrily with a couple of irate City fans” as they protested against the rise in prices during the first half.

All of which sets up tonight’s clash with Sligo Rovers, one in which defeat would surely see Cork destined to suffer a second relegation in three seasons as they are currently bottom of the Premier Division, eight points adrift of the Bit O’Red.

Facing into such a pivotal time, the club have announced “a 25% discount on a Six Match Special pass for the remaining home games of the season… and we need your vocal support for every minute of every game.”

Cork fans have already made their voices heard because they believed nobody was listening.

The irony won’t be lost at offering such a discount to try and entice people back, but it feels like the damage has been done with that relationship.

Sligo are well capable of inflicting a potentially critical blow tonight, and it’s hard to see how Cork can recover.

Tonight’s fixtures (all kick-offs 7.45pm unless stated)

Premier Division - Cork City v Sligo Rovers (Live on Virgin Media); Derry City v Bohemians; Galway United v Waterford.

First Division - Athlone Town v Treaty United; Dundalk v Wexford; Kerry v UCD; Finn Harps v Cobh Ramblers.  Tomorrow - Longford Town v Bray Wanderers (7.30pm).