National League/Emmet Malone: There are few glum cup winners in football but even a fleeting glance at the delight amongst Derry City's players and officials at Tolka Park served to highlight just how much they all felt they had achieved in coming back from the brink of extinction to win a major trophy in just two and a half years.
At the time of the club's crisis City benefited, in a way few clubs would, from the good will displayed by Celtic and Manchester United both of whom sent teams to the Brandywell for what turned out to be hugely successful fundraisers.
Debts that at one stage approached the £400,000 mark still forced a fundamental rethink on the club, however, and what Kevin Mahon has done with greatly reduced resources suggests that the quiet spoken Northerner is as capable a manager as the league currently possesses.
In Sunday's Carlsberg-sponsored FAI Cup final players like Joe Harkin and Ciaran Martyn provided ample evidence that Mahon can spot a good buy in the market place while the outstanding display by a less than fully fit Sean Friars indicates that he also has what it takes to pick up a player discarded by an English club, dust him off and get the very best out of him.
More important, however, is the broader balance that the City boss continues to strike between coaxing his established stars - Liam Coyle and Peter Hutton - into delivering on a consistent basis and bringing through a new generation of younger locally bred players like Darren McCready and Eddie McCallion.
Even the highly paid veteran, David Kelly, contributed much more and performed with far more honesty during the past three months than most who have come this way in the past.
For Mahon, though, the toughest test may come with the success that he has so far managed to generate. Cutting wages and looking to develop talent from within the club rather than buying in isn't quite so difficult when your bank is already bouncing the club's cheques.
The obvious joy of Sunday's victorious squad suggests that most of Mahon's men take enormous pride in playing for what is for most of them their local club.
Now, however, there will be the prospect of European football and, one hopes, a little more revenue to accompany the improving fortunes of the club on the field.
Whether Mahon can keep his better players on board as contracts run out and richer outfits from both sides of the Border circle, remains to be seen.
On countless occasions, clubs in situations very similar to Derry's have hauled themselves out of very deep holes only to start digging again almost the instant that their difficulties appear to be behind them.
If Mahon and Derry City can avoid that trap but maintain their forward momentum then the achievement will comfortably overshadow their success on Sunday. And it will certainly be of far greater lasting significance.
