All won’t be so quiet on western front as Lispole and Castlegregory meet for a place in county junior final

COUNTY JFC SEMI-FINAL Castlegregory v Lispole Paddy Kennedy Memorial Park, Annascaul, Sunday April 22 2.30pm

THE western of the two derby pairings in the semi-finals sees last year’s runners-up take on one of the beaten semi-finalists from last year’s event. Lispole had the better County League campaign in 2017 in getting promotion to Division Three but Castlegregory reached the decider and both their hopes of winning it last year were ended by Listry. Castlegregory’s were ended perhaps in the most wrenching circumstances in letting a big lead at half-time slip in Listry come from behind to win but they have come through their Group with three wins.

John Mitchels clubman Eoin Kelliher is at the helm this year and is happy with how the new format has played out so far.

“Every game has felt like a Final because you can’t afford any slip-ups over a short distance. We are very happy with how we pulled through against Tarbert because that was a game where everything was thrown at us and the lads got their reward for sticking in there even when it appeared gone for us,” the Castlegregory manager said of a Round Robin that saw them record wins over Sneem/Derrynane and Scartaglin as well.

Lispole have the handicap of receiving a walkover from Kilgarvan with their Group already having been decided before with their wins over Cordal and Cromane in the opening two matches. They have some big injury worries for Sunday with Tom Kavanagh not expected to feature due to a hamstring injury and Darragh O’Sullivan and Mike Jim Fitzgerald not expected to have recovered sufficiently from pre-existing injuries. A due departure for All-Ireland Minor winner Brian Rayel to America is another issue for the club to deal with as manager Damien O’Sullivan feels the game has come a bit too soon for them in some respects.

“We had been preparing for the 29th so getting a few days’ notice of the game being brought forward is something we have been having to juggle around. Finding out we would not be playing late last week disrupted things for us as well so it’s not the best preparation for the semi-final even though I am happy with how the Club Championships are being ran this year in general,” the Lispole boss said. The two West Kerry sides have already met this year in their local district League which saw a draw in one encounter and a win for Castlegregory in the other and O’Sullivan feels Lispole have a big task if they want to win on Sunday.

“Castle have the benefit of that win against Tarbert at the weekend and I think the experience of what happened in last year’s Final is standing to them this year. Our hope is to try and stay with them as long as possible and see what happens from there.”

Castlegregory boss Kelliher says that his side are only looking at what’s in front of them meanwhile.

“Lispole have a lot of physical strength that we have to counteract but while we have addressed a lot of the issues from last year’s match with Listry with the players we are only concentrating on Lispole for the moment and can’t get ahead of ourselves.”

At full strength for both this would be a hard one to predict but with Lispole’s personnel issues, Castlegregory appear to have the upper hand in advance and if their influential trio of Alan Fitzgerald, Jimmy O’Grady and Timmy Moriarty can hit form they should find themselves back in a Junior Final with a chance at redemption for last year.