Brideview A overturn 4 goal deficit to make semis

The group games in the President’s Cup concluded last Sunday as the four semi-finalists emerged and they will play the first legs in the knockout stage this coming Sunday. Story of the day belong to Brideview A who had to defeat Inch by 4 goals to qualify for a last four spot and deny the East Cork team of a semi-final place.

Lismore top the group on goal difference, while at Fitzgerald Park both Kinsalebeg and Valley Rgs A had both qualified, with the Conna team going through on goal difference following a draw. While Valley Rgs B lost at home to Cappoquin/Railway.

This week, we include a letter sent to the league from the FAI re protocols that must be observed by all the clubs. With a new virus now in Europe and probably Ireland, it is once again vital that we all continue as we have been doing for 18 months, taking all the necessary precautions.

REPORTS Lismore 4 Brideview B 1

Lismore transferred their 2nd leg home game with Brideview B to Leonard Fraser Park on Sunday morning and had a six goal advantage from the previous week’s 1st leg encounter.

Lismore scored three times in the opening half with goals from Shane Lynch, John Roche and Cian Aldred. In the 70th minute, Kieran Crawford scored for Brideview to reduce the deficit, but Lismore scored again before the final whistle through Kyle Bennet.

Lismore now play at home on Sunday in the semi-final 1st leg v Kinsalebeg.

Brideview A 4 Inch 0

In our preview we noted this as our match of the day. Inch won the 1st leg 1-0 and went into this game knowing a draw would suffice. Brideview on the other hand knew they had to win by at least four goals to see them into the last four and knock Inch out of the competition.

Our colleague Paddy took in this game for us on Sunday afternoon and he reported that the day was unpleasant and cold as both teams kicked off. Both teams went on the attack from the start and 14mins in Brideview were awarded a free kick from outside the area. Richie Ryan saw his free kick go all the way into the net for the lead goal. The home side should have scored again a few minutes later, but Dave McInerney saw his effort go wide when well placed.

Jamie Murphy in the Brideview goal made a good save from Pa Sullivan and at the other end, a great run by Gavin Fives saw his effort go wide. Sean Long then hit the crossbar for Inch and half-time arrived with Brideview leading 1-0.

The second half started with Brideview on the attack, chasing goals. Ryan came close but shot wide and a wonderful pass from Fives to McGrath saw the Inch ‘keeper save well.

In the 66th minute Brideview were awarded a penalty which Michael Curley despatched to the net. Three minutes later Eoin McGrath scored and all of a sudden it looked more and more like Brideview would score the next goal to see them into the last four. Chris Murphy just missed a cross with his head in the 70th minute, but Inch kept trying to get a goal that might see them top the group. With 5mins remaining Jamie

Murphy had to make a good save to deny Inch, but within two minutes Chris Murphy found the net at the other end when he chipped the ‘ keeper, giving Brideview the four goals needed. In injury time, a header from Kieran Geary hit the angle of the crossbar and the full time whistle sounded, with Brideview into the last four.

Once again, the fighting spirit showed Brideview at their very best and they can look forward to a trip out the road to Conna to meet their old rivals, Valley Rgs A in a semi-final.

Brideview - Jamie Murphy, Shane Roche, Kieran Geary, Ml. Tobin, Donnacha Mulcahy, Gavin Fives, Richie Ryan, Ml. Curley, Dave McInerney, Eoin McGrath, Chris Murphy. Reserves - Dylan Mangan, Evan Sheehan, John Chambers.

Referee was Simon Drislane, who kept the game flowing, helped by two sporting teams.

Man of the Match award - Paddy tells us there were a few that could have won the award, but he gives it to Brideview’s Michael Curley for his midfield display.

Kinsalebeg 2 Valley Rgs A 2

Both teams knew before this 2nd leg game commenced that they were through to the last four, but Valley had a three goal advantage from the 1st leg in Conna and were favourites to top the group.

We took in this game at Fitzgerald Park on Sunday afternoon and the pitch was in excellent condition. It was an ideal day for the game and although realistically there was nothing at stake, this was a very good game of football.

Both teams attacked from the start and played very good passing football. Jack Lezack on the left wing was causing problems for the home defence with his runs down the touchline. He crossed into the area but Kevin Gleeson headed over the bar. Minutes later John Noonan crossed and Lezack saw his effort saved brilliantly by Joyce in the home goal at the expense of a corner.

In the 15th minute Valley scored when Gleeson found the net following a good passing movement involving three players. Kinsalebeg equalised when a long ball from defence saw the Valley ‘keeper having to come outside his area in an attempt to clear the ball, but Alan Kelly dispossessed him and hit the ball into an empty net from 25 yards for a deserved equaliser. A free kick to Kinsalebeg saw Graham Guiry head over and just before half-time, Ciaran Kelleher saw his effort come back off a post. 1-1at half-time.

The home side took the lead early in the second half when Alan Kelly scored his and Kinsalebeg’s second goal. This saw Kinsalebeg needing two more goals and in fairness, they tried hard but gave away a soft goal for the equaliser, scored by Chris Kelly. Full time 2-2 after a very entertaining game.

The result sees Valley top the group, with Kinsalebeg in second spot. Valley Rgs A have home advantage in the 1st leg semi-final on Sunday, when Brideview A are visitors. Kinsalebeg play their 1st leg semi-final away to Lismore on Sunday.

Valley Rgs A - Facunda Herrandes, Chris Kelly, Juan Ivan, Rob English, John Cashman, Kevin Cotter, Ciaran Kelleher, Ed. Kenneally, John Noonan, Jack Lezack, Kevin Gleeson. Reserves - Alan Carr, Eoin Wallace, Paul Geary, Alan O’Mahony.

Referee Eamonn Cusack, helped by two sporting teams, made a very entertaining 90mins.

Man of the Match Award - There were a few candidates from both teams that were in the running, however we give the award to Graham Guiry, Kinsalebeg.

VALLEY RGS B 1 CAPPOQUIN/RAILWAY 6

Both teams were out of the competition and only the honour of each club was at stake. Capp/Railway went in to the game with a six goal advantage and scored three times in the opening 45mins. Valley scored after half-time through Dylan Crotty, but the visitors hit back and scored three more goals for a comprehensive victory.

Caoilan Foley and Craig Dunne shared the goals between them, with each scoring a hat-trick.

FIXTURES

Sunday next sees the two semi-final 1st legs in the Pollard President’s Cup, with Conna and Lismore hosting the games. Group 1 winners Lismore play Group 2 runners-up Kinsalebeg and Group 2 winners Valley Rgs A play Group 1 runners-up Brideview A. Both games will kick off at 12 noon.

Lismore v Kinsalebeg

Lismore won Group 1 on goal difference and welcome runners-up in Group 2, Kinsalebeg to the Castle Farm Ground on Sunday in the 1st leg.

In the group games, Lismore scored 16 goals and conceded 5, while Kinsalebeg scored 19 goals and conceded 11. Both teams are attack conscious, but Lismore have a better defensive record from their six games played.

Kinsalebeg will come into this game in confident mood after a good start to the season. In their six group games played, they lost just once and that was away in Conna to Valley Rgs A.

Kinsalebeg have an excellent goalkeeper in Arron Joyce and the signing of Graham Guiry to the heart of the defence has brought stability, which the team lacked for a number of years. In midfield team captain, Andy Walsh and Ian O’Brien are giving main front man Soren Delaney the passes, which he is turning into goals and who is in rich scoring form at present.

Lismore are a young team with experienced players, none more so than centre half, Brian Shanahan. His tussles with Delaney could be the difference in winning and losing this game. The experienced Stephen Quinn, Ben Shanahan Quinn and Finbarr Reaney are all goal scorers and while Lismore have a reputation as cup giants through the years, they will have to build a lead to take to Kinsalebeg the following week. When we saw them play Inch two weeks ago, they were unable to find the net and this was the only game they lost in their group.

We have seen Kinsalebeg twice in the past few weeks and in our opinion are the best team they have had for a number of years. However, Lismore, with home advantage, will start as favourites and we expect them to win, but whether the advantage will be enough for the second leg, depends entirely on how they play up front and against a well organised defence. An interesting game.

Valley Rgs A v Brideview A

We have been previewing these two clubs in encounters over many years. Any Valley v Brideview game in our opinion is the best local derby in any league and both teams bring the best out of each other. When they met in Lismore last June in the 2020/21 Bolger Cup final, Brideview came out on top 4-1 and then in this season’s Bolger Cup final at Fitzgerald Park, Brideview triumphed 3-1. Valley have a team with plenty of experience from cup finals and on Sunday at home will look to take a lead to Tallow for the following Sunday. Brideview also have players with many years experience and know how to win cup finals and in many areas are evenly matched.

Both teams have excellent goalkeepers, the two best ones in the league. Facuna Herrandes and Jamie Murphy give wonderful confidence to their outfield players with their saves and distribution. Rob English, Chris Kelly and John Cashman in defence for the home side are strong, while at midfield Valley will look to Kevin Cotter and Ed. Kenneally to give plenty of the ball to an attack that has scored 33 goals in six games. Tom Hartnett, John Noonan, Jack Lezack and Adrian Carr have all found the net and are a fast moving attack.

Brideview have Kieran Geary at the heart of the defence along with Ben Ahearne, Donnacha Mulcahy and Shane Roche. In midfield there is no need to mention Michael Curley, the best midfielder for many years in the league and his influence from the centre will no doubt have a bearing on the result. Along side him and scoring is Richie Ryan while up front and on the left wing is Chris Murphy who is having a good season to date, with Dave McInerney and Eoin McGrath.

Brideview have scored 14 goals in five games and conceded 8 goals, three of which was when they failed to play Lismore a few weeks back. Valley have conceded 5 goals in their six games played.

Never an easy game to forecast, but with a two leg affair, Valley will have to bring a lead to Tallow for Sunday week, and we think they will win, but by how much we’re afraid to guess. But it is a game we are looking forward to.

FIXTURES SUNDAY, 5TH DECEMBER

Paddy Pollard President’s Cup (sponsored by Absolute Homes): Lismore v Kinsalebeg 12pm, E Cusack; Valley Rgs A v Brideview A 12pm, K Hayes.

BEST WISHES

We send best wishes on our own behalf and on behalf of the WW/EC Junior League to Derry O’Leary, Conna and Gillian Daly, Midleton who will marry this Saturday in Midleton.

Derry is known as ‘Mr Valley Rgs’ for the years of service he has given to the Conna club in a variety of positions. We have known Derry for so many years. Speaking to Derry on Sunday last at the Kinsalebeg/ Valley Rgs game we wished himself and Gillian the very best for the future and hope to see him at a game soon. He told us he will be at the second leg of the Valley game on Sunday week. The boss speaks!

FAI PROTOCOLS

All clubs in the league have received an e-mail from the league secretary outlining the latest protocols from the FAI. Nothing much has changed from the last list of protocols the league received from Abbotstown.

However a few ‘must’ items moving forward. 1: Where the use of dressing rooms are permitted we must adhere to the DoH/HSE indoor guidelines of (A) Players/ backroom staff who are vaccinated, (B) players/backroom staff who are not, no mixing is allowed for indoor settings however, players that are not vaccinated will be permitted to use a separate dressing room in pods of up to six with social distancing and mask wearing guidelines adhered to, this will be determined by the host club Covid Compliance Officer. Please note that masks must be worn in all indoor settings.

2: The host club must provide hand sanitizer at the door of each dressing room, however, all players and coaches must also bring their own hand sanitiser.

3: Any person entering the field of play to attend to an injury can only do so if they are wearing a face covering and gloves, the referee will not allow persons onto the field without these.

All clubs have been made aware of the above guidelines.

DELEGATE MEETING

We have been asked by the committee of the WW/ EC Junior League to remind all clubs that the next delegate meeting of the WW/EC Junior League will be held on Tuesday, 7th December at the Conna Community Centre, hosted by the Valley Rgs Club and commencing at 7.30pm.

The agenda includes the semi-finals and final of the President’s Cup competition. The semi-finals will be played on Sundays, 5th December and 12th December. The final will be played at the Castle Farm Ground, Lismore on Sunday, 19th December with a 12pm kick-off.

The committee are asking clubs to nominate one club member to assist on the committee as there are many events in the planning stage for the New Year. These include the Over 35 league, which is sponsored by Go Power, and is planned to commence on 10th January, 2022. The committee plan to have the youth league up and running for next season and they are currently hoping to see the league grow with a few more teams taking part, helping current clubs to expand.

The league will be 50 years old in 2022 and the league committee want to celebrate this milestone with some club celebrations. We hope to have more information next week from the committee.

OVER 35 LEAGUE

The committee contacted us for the notes to say that due to the high number of Covid cases, the commencement of the Over 35 League has been pushed back a month to January. The league is ready to kick-off in early January and registrations, etc will take place at the delegate meeting in Conna on Tuesday, 7th December, which will commence at 7.30pm.

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE

We commence this segment with some comments from Waterford FC fans as they departed Richmond Park on Friday night last having just seen their Blues team lose the relegation/promotion play-off to UCD 1-2 - “A shambles , a disgrace, UCD wanting to win more than Waterford, some players not up to it on the night” - comment from some fans who travelled to cheer on their beloved Blues.

For ourselves, four days last week, just after 9am Tuesday morning to 9.40pm Friday night, have been days one wishes could be erased from the football memory of following the Blues for over six decades.

First news on Tuesday that manager Marc Bircham was suspended for a week, within 10mins we hear he is relieved of his duties, sacked. We were unable to garner any news and from then until Friday there was nothing but rumour and speculation.

On Wednesday Ian Hendon took over the managerial role of the team and was in the dugout on Friday night. The general consensus of the many supporters who departed Waterford city and West Waterford, as they hit the motorway to Dublin, was that Waterford, regardless of the goings on off the field, would be good enough to win and play Premier football next season.

In our preview last week we wrote that we had seen UCD play a number of times this season, in St. Colman’s Park twice, Turner’s Cross and the Markets Field twice, including three weeks ago when the defeated Treaty 0-3 with Colm Whelan scoring twice. UCD then defeated Bray in a play-off to play Waterford and our own feeling was that we would rather see Bray as the opponents, as UCD have players with pace with manager Andy Meyler having them well organised.

Waterford got off to the best possible start scoring after 5mins when a Jack Stafford throw in was headed by John Martin into Andrew Wordsworth who volleyed to the net. Unfortunately this was a false hope as Waterford did not continue to attack and build on this score, allowing UCD into the game and how the students showed their attacking flair. Liam Kerrigan was causing problems for the left hand side of the Blues defence and in the 26th minute his cross allowed former Blues’ player, David Keane to score at the far post. Brian Murphy then came to Waterford’s rescue with a brilliant save from Kerrigan, who was running riot on his right wing.

8mins later UCD took the lead when Keane got past two tackles and another former Blues’ player Colm Whelan took advantage of some dreadful defending to score and give the students a deserved half-time lead.

The second half was only a few minutes old when Murphy had to make another save from Whelan. As the half progressed discipline in the Waterford team saw six yellow cards issued by referee Paul McLoughlin, with one, substitute Niall O’Keeffe, receiving a second, turning to red with less than 5mins remaining. Murphy was called on again to make another save and he, in fact, kept the score to just a goal deficit. 5mins of injury time we hoped might see a last ditch effort, but in truth, the UCD ‘keeper had little or nothing to do in the second half. That in itself tells the tale. The final whistle sounded and Waterford were condemned to the 1st Division for 2022, after being promoted in 2017.

No doubting the winners over the 90mins. They were the better team with former Blues’ players Whelan and Keane outstanding, as was Kerrigan on the right wing. At centre back Sam Todd won all the high balls from Waterford, with his partner Keaney playing a captain’s role.

Waterford will look back on a season that saw the management change from John Sheridan to Kevin Sheedy and in May after 15 games and only 6 points on the table, Marc Birchan was appointed. For the next 21 games Waterford went from 6pts to 42pts and then on that Tuesday, the club was thrown into turmoil with the manager sacked. Once again the Waterford club is in the news for all the wrong reasons and we await news from the club owner as to what his intentions are for 2022.

We will have plenty to write on all this shambles in the next couple of weeks, but for all of the Blues supporters around the county what has happened is not acceptable.

When one draws a line from Dublin to Galway, there is not a Premier club south of the line, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Cobh, Waterford, Wexford, Bray, Longford and Athlone are all 1st Division clubs. Dublin have five Premier clubs, with Drogheda, Dundalk, Derry, Finn Harps and Sligo making up the ten clubs in the Premier. This is not good for the game and needless to say, something the FAI will have to look at going forward.

The FAI know the Premier division need Cork, Waterford and Limerick in the top division, because as things stand at present we are going to have a Southern League on its own. While there will be plenty of Munster derbies for the fans, Premier football is what all of us want. Plenty to write about in the weeks ahead.

CUP FINAL

Due to a shortage of space we are unable to write of the Extra.IE FAI Cup final which St. Pats won defeating Bohemians in a penalty shoot-out. We will write on this next week.