From the UCD bench to Chelsea cup clash in 12 months

In a season full of firsts, Cathal McCarthy had another couple last Friday evening when he started his first FA Cup game in his first game against Premier League opponents, none other than world champions Chelsea.

Although the game finished 4-0 in the end, Hull City were no pushovers and held Chelsea scoreless until late in the first half when Pedro Neto opened the scoring. The €60 million Portuguese winger went on to complete a hat-trick in the second half.

McCarthy’s Hull have had a superb Championship season so far and right in the mix of the promotion race but up it was up against Chelsea’s superstars.

“Before going in, I knew it was going to be tough. I think we all did. We expected a tough game, but it was a bad result in the end, 4-0, but I think we worked our socks off. We can hold our heads up high in that aspect. Personally, it was a very nice moment, being able to play against someone like Chelsea, and it’s just nice that the gaffer puts his trust in me.

“I don't think there's any shame in the result, they're world champions for a reason. They have so much quality all over the pitch. We just tried to make it as hard as possible and tried to keep it as at 0-0 for as long as possible and just make a game out of it but it wasn’t to be in the end,” said McCarthy.

It was a moment to take stock of how far he has come. McCarthy spent Valentines Day in 2025 as an unused sub as UCD began their League of Ireland season with a 3-0 defeat away to Wexford. Fast forward 12 months and he was charged with trying to help keep over €150 million worth of attacking talent quiet in one of the world’s most famous cup competitions.

“It's definitely a change of scenery from a year ago,” laughed McCarthy.

“A lot of their players cost a lot of money but that's what you want to be doing. you want to be playing against those types of players and testing yourself,” he added.

The step up in quality was noticeable.

“It's such a huge step-up. The Premier League is the best in the world and they're up the top as well, they're not just down the bottom or fighting to stay in it, they're fighting for the Champions League (places) and I'm sure they'll be fighting for the league next year as well, they've got a really strong squad. So, yeah, it was a step-up, everyone's physical, everyone's quick, and there's just quality all over the pitch,” said McCarthy, who was satisfied with his own performance.

“I was happy enough. It's not nice to concede four, that's never nice but I thought I held my own. I was just trying to get me tackles in and stuff like that and be as solid as I could and I thought I did that,” he said.

Selection for the game was sign of the trust that manager has in McCarthy, something that delights the youngster.

“When you're a young player you just want to get as many minutes as you can. You need the manager to put his faith into you and put his trust into you. Chelsea is probably the biggest of them all. I know it's the FA Cup, but it's such a big team. It does me a world of good and gives me so much confidence that he wants to put me in those games and puts his trust in me in games like that,” he said.

There’s been other big games too. Just six minutes into a game away to promotion rivals Middlesbrough last month, McCarthy was introduced from the bench after an injury to Ryan Giles. It was a huge clash at the top of the Championship and Hull dug in to grind out a 1-0 win.

“That was a nice one in fairness,” he said.

“It was a nice moment. Middlesbrough are tough. It was away from home. We scored early on in that game and then had to a lot of defending after that but I'm happy enough to do that as a defender. It's the stuff of dreams as a defender to get a 1-0 win away like that.” McCarthy admits that he has been lucky with the games he has played to have a lot of support in the stands. Things fell nicely for him once again last weekend. A lot of his family had planned to be at the game and the fact that McCarthy was starting was then a huge bonus.

“I've been very lucky in who's been coming over to my games because my first game against Blackburn, they had that booked about three weeks in advance. I didn't even think I was going to be in the squad for that day. It was the same for this one. I thought I wasn't even going to be in the squad, just because there’s lads come back from injury and stuff. I found out the day before. You kind of have an idea during the week in training, just from doing shape and all that sort of work in training and then I was told the day before.

“My mam and three of her sisters were there so that was nice,” he said.

The Friday night game also presented the opportunity for a quick trip home to spend Valentine’s Day with his girlfriend Sophie, sister of Kildare GAA star Darragh Kirwan.

“Yeah, that's it, got home for Valentine's, got home to see the missus, that's important too, you can't be missing out on stuff like that. It just worked out perfectly with the game on the Friday,” he said.

Another recent trip home gave the opportunity to visit his old team-mate’s in Klub Kildare.

“I was home there three weeks or four weeks ago. Jay (Jamie Smith) is great, he just shot up at a text and I told him I was home. So he just said, pop down. I hadn't been down in a while, at least a year. So I said I'd pop down and just see the lads and it was good to see them,” he said.

Back in England and now the focus will be on the remaining 15 games in the Championship as Hull push for promotion to the Premier League. They currently sit fourth in the table, five points behind Coventry in the second automatic promotion spot and six points ahead of Preston who are just outside the play-off spots. The season is on a knife edge with plenty of twists and turns still to come.

“Everyone's really excited for it because we're coming into crunch time now in the season and you just want to be up the top come the end. There's still a few more games to go, we’ve 15 game to play so there's a lot of points to play for. Hopefully we'll be up there in the play-off come the end of the season.

“No game's easy. Even looking at our results. That day we went and beat Middlesbrough who were top of the table. Three days before that we drew 2-1 with (bottom of the table) Sheffield Wednesday and we probably lucky to come out with a draw. You just don't know what you're going to get each week but I think that’s why it's so special. It's just great to play in and you never know what you're going to get,” said McCarthy.

The Kildare branch of the Hull City supporters club, which must have had an explosion in numbers this season, are sure to be cheering him on.

As well as those huge games in the Championship promotion race, there are also two Republic of Ireland Under 21 games at the end of next month that are on McCarthy’s mind also.

“I suppose that's only around the corner so you're kind of half thinking of that as well. It’s hard not to because you're representing your country and you want to be picked. Two big games coming up, Moldova and then Kazakhstan. We're in a bit of a tough spot at the minute after the way the last couple of games went but we can still qualify. We know what we have to do, win pretty much all of our games. So, these next two games are big,” said McCarthy.