FAI Cup final: A delayed honeymoon, a frantic flight change and two very understanding wives
For Drogheda United pair Adam Foley and Ryan Brennan, it's football first.
One player had to delay his honeymoon by seven months and another was forced to change arrangements for a dream holiday to Thailand.
But there are no flight risks in the Drogheda United dressing room - with two massive games coming up over the next 10 days.
When Adam Foley got married to Nadine in April, his better half was aware that she would have to shelve their trip to Nashville and Cancun until much later in the year.
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As for Ryan Brennan, he thought he’d considered all eventualities when he booked an Asian adventure with his wife Stephanie, baby daughter Blathnaid and his in-laws.
But when a clash of finals - the FAI Cup and promotion/relegation play-off - bumped the latter from this Friday to Saturday week, it left the midfielder in a bind.
Luckily he managed to switch his flights without incurring too great a cost.
“I was kind of lucky enough that it was reasonable enough to change the flights. That softened the blow a bit,” he said, admitting that the situation led to some difficult talks at home.
“You are in two cup finals to bring back a trophy to the town and cement your position in the Premier Division.
“For me I’m contracted until the end of November, so there was no way in hell that I was going to leave.”
There is one advantage to his predicament.
“It’s a 16-18 hour trip… I’ll have free reign on the flight over and then go into the madness afterwards,” Brennan said.
“If we do win, it’ll be a rough old hangover getting on the flight that Monday morning. But the old cliche, take it game by game.”
For Foley, meanwhile, it’s business as usual in his role as Business Development Manager for Brett Martin Limited, before Sunday’s Cup final, the play-off and his honeymoon.
“I’ll go all the way to Friday (in work). I’ll try to see if I can get Monday off,” he said.
“I’ve a presentation up north for work tomorrow and then I’ll be covering the Leinster area for the next few days. But I’ll be back in time for training, that’s every day.
“The play-off then, another mad week. Then I have my honeymoon three days after that.
“She (Nadine) understood we couldn’t go away until at the end of the season. But in fairness she is great, she’s at every game home and away.
“So there is big excitement in our house at the moment for the two games then the honeymoon.
“She wanted her April wedding and got the April wedding! So we said we’d have the honeymoon in November so we could go away for a couple of weeks.
“We’re going to Nashville, Orlando and then Cancun, around 19 days.”
Nashville?
“She is mad into country music,” Foley explained. “I wanted to go to Cancun just to chill out. Orlando is her favourite spot too.
“Cancun, I just want to sit by the pool with a beer and a book. It’s a great spot. I was there with Danny Rogers around eight years ago.”
Foley says a win on Sunday would be as much a reward for his new wife as for himself.
“She helps me massively. You have good days like the Wexford win (in the semi-final), I had 300 messages on my phone that day,” he said.
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“But if we got beat I’d probably only have one message and that would be her, sorry two, her and my mam.
“She is there no matter what through the good times and the bad. She knows when to leave me alone too. She’s been brilliant.
“Sometimes you get caught up in it but Sunday is just as much for them as it is for us.
“A good few of us work. They sacrifice their weekends, holidays, going away, it’s a lot on them. So to give them this day out, myself and her go to the Cup final every year.
“We always said we’d get here one day. Now this is the year.”
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