Interesting pairings for Junior ‘B’ quarter-finals

THE draw for the quarter-finals of the Phillip Doyle Junior ‘B’ football championship quarter-finals has thrown up some very interesting pairings.

Conducted on Monday evening the draw was made from two pools of teams, those who had finished on top of their groups and those who finished second with the teams who had played each other in the group stages unable to meet again.

One of the interesting pairings is that of Enniskerry and Blessington. Enniskerry’s most recent outing saw them dispose of Avoca in their final group game after they had already accounted for the Avondale challenge in their opening game.

They now face a Blessington side who defeated Lacken and Tinahely but who fell at the hands of Rathnew. Expect a really decent game of football from this quarter-final.

The aforementioned Rathnew will take on Avoca in their quarter-final having breezed through their group with two wins, and a walk-over from Lacken. The Village side will be hard stopped but they will get nothing easy for Avoca, of that there will be little doubt. Expect a crunching quarter-final here.

Hollywood’s disposal of Newtown in their final group game put them in pole position and they have been drawn to face neighbours Kiltegan and this one should be a very interesting and close affair.

Kiltegan lost out to Knockananna in their opening game but bounced back to take care of Dunlavin in their second game and that bit of momentum gained by Kiltegan is what will make this tie well worthy of a watch.

The last quarter-final sees Knockananna go up against Newtown. The Magpies defeated AGB and then lost out to Hollywood in their final game while Knockananna endured a tough old battle with Kiltegan before easing past a depleted Dunlavin side in Knockananna.

Knockananna have their sights set on a return to Junior ‘A’ ranks but there’s no team like the Magpies to put paid to those ambitions. Could be a very decent game.

Junior B football championship quarter-final draw: Knockananna v Newtown; Hollywood v Kiltegan; Rathnew v Avoca; Enniskerry v Blesssington. Games to be played over the weekend of August 26-28 at neutral venues.