Peter Doherty: 'We're as good if not better than last year'

Cockhill Celtic are hoping to add yet another piece of history to Donegal football this weekend when they take on Enniskillen Rangers in Ballinamallard in the FAI/IFA President’s Junior Cup. 

Following on from their heroic FAI Junior Cup win last May that saw the club win their first national title, the Inishowen side hopes to now become the first team from Donegal to win the coveted President’s Cup which is played out between the Junior Cup winners from Northern Ireland and the Junior cup winners from the south. 

This will also follow one month on from when Cockhill became the first Donegal team to win the FAI Tom Hand Trophy with a thrilling win on penalties over FAI Intermediate Cup champions Glebe North. 

“As far as I know we are the first team in this President’s Cup final,” Cockhill defender Peter Doherty told Donegal Live.  

“It’s a competition a bit like the Tom Hand trophy in that it hasn’t been around for a long time, so I don’t think Swilly Rovers or Finn Harps would’ve played in it, so it’s another chance for us to create a bit of history.” 

Doherty has described the last few months in 2024 as ‘surreal’ with the Hoops winning five trophies this year alone, including three domestic titles between cups and a league crown, and two national cup trophies. 

“The last few months have been a bit surreal but we hope to keep these unique achievements going for another week at least,” Doherty said. 

He finds it difficult to point to exactly what motivates his team every week, but points to the management team as the main driving force behind his side’s success in recent times. 

“Like when you talk about what drives us on or what motivates us, it’s hard to put your finger on any one thing, you can mainly point to the management I suppose, they’re the lads that keep us on our toes and instills that bit of hunger into us,” Doherty said.  

“I feel there’s always that hunger throughout the team to do really well, not just in games but in training too. 

“We have this desire to win everything, we want to win every match at training, and then that transfers down into matchday, it can be just as simple as that sometimes. I can’t remember a time when the lads in the team didn’t have the hunger to win everything and to do well for the team. 

“Even the games we don’t win, there’s always that disappointment and willingness to do better the next time and try and learn from our mistakes and when you have lads that are doing that every week, it’s great.” 

With the 2024/’25 season now underway, the Cockhill defender acknowledges that there is now even a bigger target on his side’s back for teams to knock the Inishowen champions off their thrown, but takes comfort in believing that his side are as good if not better than last year’s team with the return and introduction of players to the squad. 

“We probably have a bigger target on our back this season,” he said. “There was already one there from when we dropped down from Intermediate level to Junior level, but then with the fact that we did so well last season we know teams will be going all out to pip us now, but for us, we’re just going to see can we get as close to as we did last year, and hopefully we can. 

We want to replicate what we did last season and try and win as much as we can, and we know that will be difficult, but there are a few things we can always improve on and that helps with the fact that we’ve strengthened the squad with boys like Stephen Duffy, Fionn McClure, and Christopher McLaughlin, players like that coming back into the squad, who’ve left for a few years. 

“So, I really think we’re as strong if not stronger than we were last season, which is a great place to be in.”