The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Athletic do the double
JULY was the biggest month of the year on the domestic soccer calendar with most of the major silverware on offer handed out.
The month started with a bang with the Premier A title decided after a replay and a clash of the titans it was too. The top two sides in the county in 2017 happened to hail from the same town – Killarney, with Celtic and Athletic facing off.
The two sides went toe-to-toe, punchfor-punch for over eighty minutes with most of the large crowd in attendance largely convinced by now another stalemate was going to be the outcome.
In the end extra-time wasn’t necessary. Daithí Casey – taking a brilliant assist from substitute Paulie O’Sullivan – slotted past Celtic keeper Roy Kelliher on eighty four minutes to secure the title for Athletic.
It truly was a red letter day for the club as founding member Don O’Donoghue explained to The Keryrman.
“We have won a few of the cup competitions in recent years, but we never won the Premier A title, which is a target any club should aspire to and it was great to bring this to fruition...
“We have been knocking on the door of success for a while and it is fantastic now that we are Premier A champions.”
The good times didn’t end there for Athletic, however, as they followed up their Premier A success with a victory in the Greyhound Bar Cup final.
The Killarney kingpins saw off Mitchels Avenue 3-0 in the final, much to the delight of Athletic boss Stuart Templeman.
“It has been a great season for the lads and they were really up for this game. We knew we could not afford to dip in our performance today as Mitchels Avenue defend from deep and try to attack on the break,” he continued.
“Winning the double caps a memorable year for the club.”
Tralee Celtic also made it a year to remember for them claiming their fourth consecutive league title. They did so by winning a Tralee derby final with Mitchels Avenue (who were unfortunate to lose two finals in under a month) in Mounthawk Park.
Celtic’s winner came in the second half and came courtesy of Alan O’Donoghue, albeit with the aid of a wicked deflection off Avenue defender Peter Murphy, which gave keeper David Hennessy no chance.
Castlemaine United claimed its first silverware with their B side getting the better of another young club, Annascaul Inch United. In the end Castlemaine won the Dvision 2 title reasonably comprehensively on a twonil scoreline.
Listowel Celtic, meanwhile, did an underage double. In the Under 17 final they saw off Killarney Celtic 2-1. The Youths final was another battle between the two Celtic sides, this time Listowel needed extra-time to see off their rivals to win one-nil.