{"id":275414,"date":"2026-02-01T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275414\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T13:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T13:45:08","slug":"james-mcclean-makes-winning-return-as-derry-city-claim-presidents-cup-over-shamrock-rovers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/275414\/","title":{"rendered":"James McClean makes winning return as Derry City claim President\u2019s Cup over Shamrock Rovers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

President\u2019s Cup: Shamrock Rovers 0 Derry City 1 (Markey 33)<\/p>\n

As the President\u2019s Cup was being presented to Derry City<\/a>, James McClean<\/a> moved easily among the Shamrock Rovers<\/a> crowd at Tallaght Stadium, even helping one young fan take a selfie.<\/p>\n

In terms of star power, it felt like the League of Ireland<\/a> had found its replacement for Damien Duff.<\/p>\n

McClean didn\u2019t speak to the written media afterwards. The 36-year-old cited an issue with one Irish football correspondent, dating back to 2017, before giving a separate interview to RT\u00c9 about his new role in midfield. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve played in midfield before, but higher up. It\u2019s something I\u2019m obviously going to get used to. I\u2019ll work hard at it, I\u2019ll grow into the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also took to social media to highlight a chant from Rovers fans: \u201cGetting called an orange b*****d by your fellow country men, stay classy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In boxing parlance, this was a useful sparring session for both clubs as the emergence of Victor Ozhianvuna<\/a> briefly intersected the final act in McClean\u2019s storied career.<\/a><\/p>\n

Derry manager Tiernan Lynch had earlier in the week labelled the fixture a \u201cglorified friendly\u201d<\/a> but there were seven yellow cards in a contest that was, at times, overly competitive. Even Rovers manager Stephen Bradley<\/a> was booked before half-time as a 4,711 attendance saw enough to highlight March 6th on the calendar.<\/p>\n

That is when the Candystripes return to Tallaght for a Premier Division tie that already feels like a six-pointer in the title race.<\/p>\n

Overall, there was a preseason feel to proceedings, albeit with the odd silky touch or tough tackle. Like when Jack Byrne cut down McClean after his fellow Republic of Ireland<\/a> international deceived Ozhianvuna with a delicate stepover. Byrne was duly cautioned.<\/p>\n

Lynch has rebuilt the Derry squad that finished runners-up to Rovers in 2023 and 2025. Besides the return of the McClean brothers, with Patrick starting at centre half, other new signings Darragh Markey, Joshua Thomas and former Bohemian James Clarke had the Hoops on alert from kick-off.<\/p>\n

Rovers have hardly stood still under Bradley with their defence of both the league and FAI Cup to be led by graduates from the Roadstone academy.<\/p>\n

\"ShamrockShamrock Rovers\u2019 Victor Ozhianvuna and Darragh Markey of Derry City. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Three players who featured at the Under-17 World Cup in Qatar last November started here; Alex Noonan got the nod ahead Ed McGinty in goal, Max Kovalevskis looked dangerous coming off the right wing while Ozhianvuna played a more central role.<\/p>\n

This season is being billed as Ozhianvuna\u2019s breakout campaign before he completes a \u20ac2 million move to Arsenal in January 2027. The teenager played an unfussy link role, although there were flashes of brilliance like when he turned on a sixpence to leave McClean in his wake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of times Vic stops then starts and just goes by players, and that\u2019s on the back of the heavy week\u2019s training and the heavy pitch,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cThe final bit was a little bit off because of the tiredness but you\u2019ll see a lot more of him [this season].<\/p>\n

\u201cMax picked up a knock, but if it is not too bad you\u2019ll definitely see a lot more of him too. He gives us real pace, and energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Noonan was an unused substitute, not because the teenager is about to sign for German club TSG Hoffenheim but rather due to a \u201clittle knock\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAsk me right now, Michael is in our plans for Dundalk next Friday,\u201d said Bradley, despite the January transfer window closing on Monday evening. \u201c48 hours, things happen quick, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n

Back and forth went the midfield duels until McClean beat Kovalevskis down the left and his low cross invited Markey to blast a half-volley beyond Noonan. As the Derry players huddled near the corner flag, McClean celebrated by himself, arms spread wide in front of the hard-core Rovers fans.<\/p>\n

It would have been 2-0 six minutes into the second half only McGinty, having replaced Noonan, denied Adam O\u2019Reilly with a fine save off his chest. The former Ireland under-21 goalkeeper kept Rovers afloat on 65 minutes when he blocked Thomas\u2019s shot, again from point-blank range, after the Welsh striker hared away from Pico Lopes.<\/p>\n

McGinty removed any notion of Noonan usurping him come the league opener at home to Dundalk by parrying a Kevin Dos Santos effort in injury time. The Portuguese winger flashed the rebound wide of an empty net.<\/p>\n

SHAMROCK ROVERS: Noonan (McGinty 46); Cleary, Lopes, Matthews (Brennan 64), Kovalevskis (Grant 46), Malley (Healy 46), Byrne (Watts 46), O\u2019Sullivan; Ozhianvuna, Mulraney; McGovern. <\/p>\n

DERRY CITY: Maher; Bannon (Doherty 80), P McClean, Slevin, Fleming; Clarke (Dos Santos 79), Winchester (O\u2019Reilly 46), J McClean; Markey, Thomas (Rylah 88), Duffy.<\/p>\n

Referee: Kevin O\u2019Sullivan (Cork).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President\u2019s Cup: Shamrock Rovers 0 Derry City 1 (Markey 33) As the President\u2019s Cup was being presented to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[14646,61,60,55018,2539,11113,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-275414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-derry-city","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-james-mcclean","12":"tag-league-of-ireland","13":"tag-shamrock-rovers","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}