Holders St. Johns keen to retain football title against Rockchapel
REIGNING holders St. Johns and Rockchapel meet in the Duhallow Junior B Football Championship (Group 2) Final in Millstreet on Saturday night
With both sides hitting form right now, a competitive battle is on the cards. From their semi-final, St. John’s availed of a productive start to put one over Freemount. Helped by an early goal from the penalty spot by Eric Barrett confirmed St. John’s held the better attacking combination and made life difficult for the opposing defence in many instances.
Much of their early dominance was due to the impact of Michéal Buckley, Denis O’Keeffe and Pa Rohan in defence with David Barrett and John O’Mahony holding sway in midfield. That allowed good ball for Donal Corkery and Tom Sheehan to penetrate in attack and pick off scores.
For their part, Rockchapel came good in extra time to halt the intentions of a gritty Ballydesmond outfit. After Ballydesmond mounted a decent second half rally to force extra time, Rockchapel emerged the better side during the additional 20 minutes, showing more composure in their play and importantly more scoring options. Indeed, the winners checked that Ballydesmond impetus and with Martin Murphy driving on from midfield, Rockchapel managed the game through to a successful conclusion.
When required, Rockchapel availed of the positive play of Maurice Stack, James Forrest, Ronan O’Sullivan and Murphy to grab a hold of the initiative both in notmal and extra time.
This has the makings of a fine game of football, no reason why it should not be still in the melting pot coming down the home straight.
Having tasted a league title win at the expense of Lismire last weekend, St. Johns enter the fray as slight favourites. That said, Rockchapel are sure to be equally eager in a most interesting showdown where championship silverware would be welcome in either camp.