St. Joseph’s captain, Daire Smyth raises the Seamus Flood Cup at Pairc Naomh Brid, Dowdallshill.
SUPERSTITION gets a bad rap at times, but if another 10 years pass without a championship trophy landing at Cluskey Park, it would take a brave disbeliever to bet against the Joe’s in 2026.
If ‘96 was manna from heaven, 2006 was possibly even bigger, and while Seamus Flood is taking Joe Ward’s place in the trophy cabinet on this occasion, in time 2016 could prove just as significant.
And it just wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t against the odds - they seem to like their underdog persona out in Darver and Dromiskin.
That’s not say they weren’t full value for a dogged two-point win over Mattock Rangers, whose bid to make an instant return to the senior ranks came undone at the final obstacle.
After losing four semi-finals in a row, nerves could easily have scuppered the Joe’s bid for glory, but they were the more composed and cohesive outfit for most of the contest, plundering goals just when they were needed and defending like lions when the inevitable backlash arrived.
Mattock, on the other hand, never hit on any kind of rhythm and credit to the winners for that too.
Wayne McKeever set up to win supremacy in the middle third and it worked a treat as Mattock’s big guns found space at a premium.
That didn’t prevent the ever-reliable David Reid from keeping them in the game for long periods, but they were over-reliant on their talisman for scores.
In the end they only managed five points from play and just one of those came in the first-half, which was a measure of how well the Joe’s bottled them up and organised themselves defensively.
And yet McKeever would have been relieved to see his side on level terms as half-time ap- proached.
The Joe’s played with a strong breeze, but Mattock did most of the probing and pressing in that spell, and a failure to capitalise on it probably precipitated their demise in the long run.
They edged ahead three times in the opening half, but the Joe’s kept hitting back, with the brilliant Alan Quigley unerring over dead balls.
But there was a sense that the Joe’s were hanging in there at times in the opening half and you had to fear for their safety when Mattock turned to take advantage of the stiff breeze.
The players probably felt that as much as anyone and as the half-time bell loomed, they landed a hay-maker square on the chin.
Jack Mulligan, Adam O’Connor and Quigley combined in a sweeping front-to-back move, and while the latter was a little fortunate to squeeze his pass through to Conal O’Hanlon, the big man took full advantage, guiding the ball past Mike Englishby with the deftest of touches.
A goal in it at the break, but the true secret to Joes’s success was the way they scrapped to defend their lead in the second period.
Adrian Reid closed the gap but Quigley hit back with a peach; Reid converted a brace of frees, but after each one wing backs David Mernagh and Alan Lynch raided forward to maintain the three-point cushion, 1-8 to 0-8.
Lynch’s could so easily have been a goal, but his fierce shot clipped the bar and flew over.
There would be no such escape for Mattock next time around.
Ryan Lenehan cut the gap to two again, but 30 seconds later the Joe’s had one hand on the trophy.
A flowing move down the left wing released Conall Smyth on goal. The livewire attacker wisely tried to fist a point, but it fell short, came back off the crossbar and dropped to Jack Mulligan, who gratefully slotted home.
The Joe’s didn’t score for the remaining 10 minutes or in the three and a half added on by Colin Halligan, but their defence ensured they didn’t need to.
David Reid seemed to be the only player capable of finding space for Mattock and he closed the gap to two points with a brace from play.
But his brother Adrian seemed in two minds on one rare occasion when Mattock breached the Joe’s cover, passing up the chance to tee-up Robbie Brennan and eventually running out of road himself.
The Joe’s still had the luxury of a three-point cushion, but it was a nervy final few seconds when Reid converted a free to cut it to two.
But they held on for dear life, despite losing Adam O’Connor to a straight red card for a bad tackle in injury-time.
It’s easy to say with hindsight, and you can scoff at superstition all you like, but it all seemed to be written in the stars.
And you can be sure that somewhere up there, the hero of 2006 and one of the Joe’s greatest ever warriors was looking down approvingly, with a twinkle in his eye.
Knowing the great Stephen Melia, he probably had some kind of hand in this one too! ST JOSEPH’S: Mark Neary; David Mernagh 0-1, Bernard Mulligan, Stefan Potts; Alan Lynch 0-1, Cian McGuinness, Adam O’Connor; Tomas Smyth, Killian Staunton; Jack Mulligan 1-0, Conall Smyth, Craig Doherty; Alan Quigley 0-5 (2f), Conal O’Hanlon 1-1, Derek Mulligan. Subs: Philip Kinihan for D Mulligan (47).
MATTOCK RANGERS: Mike Englishby; Sean Gilsenan, Cathal Clarke, James Carragher; Terry Donegan, Daire Englishby, David Brennan; Adrian Reid 0-1, Christy Grimes 0-2f; Ryan Lenehan 0-1, David Reid 0-8 (5f), Ciaran Calvey; Shane Grimes, Robbie Brennan, Aaron O’Brien. Subs: Daniel Bannon for D Brennan (ht), Ivor Sherlock for C Calvey (42), Jason McKeown for A O’Brien (59).
REFEREE: Colin Halligan.