Jay Mallon has watched from afar as Mark Connolly has turned round Derry’s season

Derry City will have spent just over 15 hours on the road during their entire FAI Cup campaign before they head to the Aviva Stadium for the final against Waterford - but that’s not even half the time one City supporter is spending on one trip to be there for Sunday’s showdown.

City fanatic Jay Mallon has mastered the art of planes, trains and automobiles down the years and he is making the long trek from Cambodia on Saturday morning.

Win, lose or draw, he won’t be hanging about as he will travel back to Cambodia Monday morning, swapping the Candystripes for the classroom to teach P7 students in the International School of Phnom Penh (ISPP) on Tuesday morning.

Mallon, who hasn’t been able to see many of City’s matches since moving to Phnom Penh at the end of the summer because of the seven-hour time difference, insisted the minute his hometown club booked their place in the final, nothing was going to stop him missing the big day.

“It’s great that we’ve reached the final, but it does mean, I’ve a headache organising everything to get back to Dublin,” he said.

“Flights and accommodation are expensive, but hopefully it will be all worth it if we win the cup.

“To be fair, my boss has been brilliant with me.

“We have a national holiday on the Monday here in Cambodia, so the school is closed, but because I’ll be leaving Dublin airport around 8am on the Monday morning, I’ll not arrive in Cambodia until around 6.30am on Tuesday morning.

“I might be a wee bit late getting into school, but I’ve assured my principal that I’ll be bringing a shirt and tie on my travels, to ensure I’m ready to go straight into school the minute I arrive on the Tuesday morning.

“I’m really looking forward to coming over even though it’s somewhat of a whirlwind trip, but I’ll be catching up with a lot of friends and it was nice of the Undertones to put a gig on in Dublin the night before the cup final, so a few of us are going to the Olympia to see their concert.”

“My friend Duncan from Scotland, who has a special affinity with Derry City because of Kenny Shiels, after he managed his club Kilmarnock, is also making the trip over.

“In fact, he booked his trip over while he was in Ibrox, during Killie’s defeat to Rangers in October, so as I said it’s going to be a great trip meeting up with a lot of friends, but as all football fans will tell you, the trip will only be memorable if we manage to beat Waterford.”

Mallon, who left his hometown almost two decades ago and moved to Edinburgh for university, has always been a traveller having spent a number of years teaching in Madrid amongst other places, so it’s not his first road trip back to watch his beloved City, having held a season ticket during all of that time.

The former St Columb’s College student, who along with his girlfriend Ashley made the switch to southeast Asia in the summer, has been delighted with the Foylesiders’ form since Mark Connolly took over the reins from Tiernan Lynch in August.

“I have to admit I was extremely disappointed at how things were under Tiernan Lynch, we were awful by the end,” he said.

“To be honest if he was still in charge, we probably would have been dragged into the relegation play-off battle and we definitely wouldn’t be anywhere near a cup final, so thankfully we made the change, although I think it should have been done a lot sooner. But since Mark came in we’ve been very good.

“While I haven’t been able to see a lot of the games live in the last few months because of the time difference, I’ve seen all the highlights and I saw the semi-final win over Galway United and I thought we were brilliant.

“Then our last two home games against St Pat’s and Dundalk, we got two big wins and again the team showed that togetherness, which we’ll need against Waterford, because they’re probably one of the in-form teams in the league, especially since Graham Coughlan came in, because at one stage they looked like they were going to finish bottom of the league.”

Mallon, like all Derry supporters, is thrilled that captain Michael Duffy continues to produce the goods, especially on the big stage.

“Mickey Duffy has been unbelievable for us, particularly in the last two years,” he added.

“But in recent weeks Patrick McClean has been immense at the back, in fact our entire left-hand side of the team with Patrick, Mickey and Brandon Fleming have really started to gel well, especially since Mark has come in.

“The other thing which I’m really happy about since Mark’s arrival has been the connection with the team and the fans.

“Going to the Brandywell earlier in the season was, to be honest, a bit of a chore; no one enjoyed going.

“While I haven’t been back since our European games, the chat in the WhatsApp groups is a lot more positive, so hopefully the team can continue that positivity and we can bring the cup home, which will make my trip back to Cambodia a lot easier.”