Whelan scores hat-trick, as Crawford scores four

Last weekend saw 21 goals scored in four league games with Brideview B hitting Valley Rgs B for eleven goals with Kieran Crawford scoring four, while the big local derby at Conna saw leaders Brideview A share the points with Valley Rgs A. A hat-trick by Aaron Whelan helped Lismore to their first league win away to Inch. Cappoquin/Railway completed a league double over Kinsalebeg with the home side taking all three points on Friday night.

This week we have four more league games with Cappoquin/Railway on Friday night under lights against Valley Rgs B. The big game is at Conna when Valley A host Lismore. Brideview A have Inch as visitors to Leonard Fraser Park.

Last week the league held their delegate meeting in Conna hosted by the Valley Rgs club and we give a short report in our notes. Two important items we hear were discussed, the shortage of referees and the continued request for extra help on the committee. The league has a new member on board, but the referee shortage continues, as can be seen with the fixtures for this week.

We heard over the weekend that two former clubs will be back playing in the league at the start of next season, which is good news for the league, but will put pressure on the fixture secretary if there are not enough referees to staff the games. All for another day.

MARI MINA PHARMACY PREMIER Valley Rgs A 2 Brideview A 2

Brideview visited Conna on Sunday morning last as league leaders, with Valley Rgs just two points adrift. At the end of the 90mins, there was no change in the table following this very good local derby. Our colleague Paddy took in the game for us on a morning that had a strong wind blowing down the field from the village end.

Both sides took time to adopt to the wind, but on 8mins Valley ‘ keeper Facunda saved well from Dave McInerney at the expense of a corner. From the resultant flag kick Donnacha Mulcahy scored to give the league leaders the lead. Brideview began to get on top after this and Eoin McGrath was nearly in when he chased a ball into the area, but Facunda reacted quickly to save. Valley brought on substitute Stephen O’Donovan and with his very first touch, he scored in the 22nd minute and the sides were level 1-1.

Shortly after, a Valley appeal for a penalty was turned down by the referee. Facunda then saved well from McGrath who was causing problems for the Valley defence with his runs on the wing. On 43mins Facunda saved well from McInerney and the half-time whistle sounded, 1-1 at the break.

Four minutes after the restart John Noonan was fouled in the area and he took the spot kick himself, giving Jamie Murphy no chance in the goal and Valley into the lead.

In the 58th minute a mix-up in the Valley defence saw Michael Curley fouled and he took the spot kick himself and scored to leave the sides level once again.

In the 70th minute Facunda made a wonderful save from Curley, pushing the ball onto the bar and off his feet to gather the ball and deny the visitors the lead. Play swung from end to end with chances created but no team able to find the net and into the 92nd minute Tom Hartnett came close but the whistle sounded shortly after and the points were shared.

Paddy says a draw was a fair result, but Brideview will be happy to leave Conna with a point to stay top of the league, while Valley will be disappointed to have another consecutive home draw, having drawn last week with Inch.

Valley Rgs A - Facunda, Steve Carr, Ivan Ohrim, Rob English, John Carr, Graham O’Neill, Tom Hartnett, Kevin Cotter, John Noonan, Jack Lazack, Ray Carr. Reserves - Kelvin Gleeson, Stephen O’Donovan, Paul Geary.

Brideview A - Jamie Murphy, Kevin Henley, David Kingston, Ryan Grey, Kieran Geary, Donnacha Mulcahy, Eoin McGrath, Eric Hickey, Michael Curley, Dave McInerney, Richie Ryan. Reserves - Shane Roche, Ben Ahearne, Dylan Mangan.

Referee Eamonn Cusack had a good a good game, playing the advantage as much as possible. Colour scheme - both teams passed.

Man of the Match - Paddy says Facunda of Valley Rgs was excellent, but he gives the Man of the Match Award to Brideview’s Eoin McGrath. He says he was amazed McGrath was starved of possession in the second half as he gave the Brideview defence a torrid time in the opening half.

Valley Rgs play at home again next Sunday morning when Lismore are visitors and Brideview have Inch as visitors.

Inch 2 Lismore 4

Lismore registered their first league points on the league table with this win at Sexton Park on Sunday morning. Having lost their two opening games, and both at home on consecutive weeks, Lismore were the under dogs starting the game. We took in the game for the notes and while the pitch was soft from the rain in the past few days, the very strong wind blowing towards the road side of the pitch helped to dry the ground, but made football control and passing difficult.

Lismore settled the quicker of the two teams with Aaron Whelan shooting wide on 7mins. A minute later a wonderful passing movement from defence to midfield to attack saw Caelin O’Gorman shoot over. It was all Lismore with the ball rarely going over the halfway line for Inch. But as so often happens, a goal arrived against the run of play when a great pass by Richie Cunningham found Pa O’Sullivan who skipped past two tackles and put the ball in the corner of the net for the lead to the home team.

Caelin O’Gorman was wide minutes later and the Inch defence, with Leonard Byrne, Conor McNamara and Mike Foley, were under a lot of pressure. On 28mins a run by Shane Lynch that brought him along the end line saw him pass to Aaron Whelan who found the net. Lismore were almost through five minutes later but a great last ditch tackle by McNamara on Ben Quinn Shanahan saved a certain goal at the expense of a corner. From the resultant flag kick by O’Gorman, the ball sailed over the heads of the defence and goalkeeper into the top corner for the lead goal. Half-time arrived with Lismore leading 1-2.

The second half saw Lismore dominate as in the opening half, but once again Inch were allowed back into the game. A free kick to the home team taken by Killian Twomey fell out of goalkeeper Maurice Shanahan’s hands and dropped kindly for the long serving Leonard Byrne to score into an empty net. However, within two minutes Lismore regained the one goal advantage when Whelan ran from 30 yards to slip the ball past the advancing Inch ‘keeper Declan Nugent. Whelan completed his hat-trick shortly afterwards to give Lismore a convincing victory.

This was a young Lismore team and our first time seeing them play since the league commenced. They were the better team over the 90mins and if they had taken all their chances they could have had a few more goals.

Inch battled bravely but had no answer to the Lismore midfield and especially Aaron Whelan in attack.

Lismore - Maurice Shanahan, Paddy Foley, Nathan Jenkins, Keith O’Sullivan, Ben Shanahan Quinn, John Roche, Aaron Whelan, Caelin O’Gorman, Shane Lynch, Kevin Dungan O’Neill, Pearse O’Rourke. Reserves - Daniel O’Keeffe, Eric O’Sullivan, Paul Quinn.

Referee Stephen Pratt kept the game moving as much as he could in the windy conditions. Colour scheme - Inch passed, Lismore failed.

Man of the Match Award. There were a few from Lismore vying for the award. But it was between Caelin O’Gorman who was outstanding in the middle of the park and the hat-trick hero, Aaron Whelan. We give the award to Aaron Whelan for his three goals and the manner in which they were scored.

We believe we saw history created on Sunday at Sexton Park for the Lismore club with a father and son lining out for the Cathedral club. Ben Quinn Shanahan was joined on the field of play midway through the second half by his father Paul Quinn who replaced the injured Shane Lynch. While our memory may not be what it once was, we cannot recall this happening in the Lismore club’s history.

Also worth noting, when Paul Quinn came on to play, he was joining Leonard Byrne (Inch) and both played for the Red House League against the Sligo/ Leitrim League in the Oscar Traynor Cup at McSharry Park, Sligo on Sunday 1st February, 2004. Leonard had also played Oscar Traynor against the Waterford League at Ozier Park in January 2001. What service both Paul and Leonard have given their clubs and the league in all those years.

THE AVONDHU 1ST DIVISION Cappoquin/Railway 4 Kinsalebeg 1

This was the first league game this season played under lights and took place on Friday night at the Cappoquin venue. The home team went into the game following a defeat away to Brideview while the visitors were feeling confident after their home win against Valley Rgs and were hoping to reverse the result of the league game two weeks back when Cappoquin/Railway defeated Kinsalebeg at Fitzgerald Park.

Unfortunately we do not have a report of the game on Friday night but we were sent the Cappoquin/Railway goal scorers by the club, with Aidan Mansfield and Shane Dunne both scoring two goals each. We do not know who scored for Kinsalebeg.

This Friday night Cappoquin/Railway will start the weekend fixtures under lights with Valley Rgs B as visitors, and Kinsalebeg will host league leaders Brideview B at Fitzgerald Park.

Brideview B 11 Valley Rgs B 1

The scoreline tells its own story as the Brideview team were much too strong for a Valley team that had only a few changes from the previous week, when we saw them lose at Fitzgerald Park to Kinsalebeg.

Brideview took an early lead through Shaun O’Sullivan and then Kieran Crawford took control with the first of his four goals. With the score at 3-0 Valley scored when Jason Moorehouse found the net, but that was as good as it got for the visitors as the home team took complete control and led at half time by 5-1.

The second half saw Brideview score six more goals with Crawford finishing with four, Noel Condon two and a goal each from Andy O’Riordan, Robbie Geary, Eamonn Forbes and an o.g.

Brideview remain top of the table following the victory and on Sunday morning next travel to Fitzgerald Park to play Kinsalebeg; Valley Rgs B travel to Cappoquin this Friday night to play Cappoquin/Railway under lights.

PREVIEWS

Friday night under lights will see the weekend fixtures commence when Cappoquin/Railway have Valley Rgs B as visitors. Sunday will see three games taking place, two in the morning and one in the afternoon. Once again as has been pointed out to us from the committee, unfortunately the lack of referees is the main problem. There is no need for us to go into all this problem area again as we have so many times.

Brideview A v Inch

The league leaders will have East Cork team Inch as visitors to Leonard Fraser Park on Sunday afternoon. Unbeaten after three league games, Brideview will want to take the three points as the league table shows, there is very little between any of the teams at present. When the teams met at Sexton Park in early January in the opening series of league games, Brideview won on 2-4. Brideview are having an excellent season and will not want to drop any points on Sunday, especially in front of their own supporters.

Inch so far have only a point from their three games, a draw away to Valley Rgs A and last Sunday lost at home to Lismore. We saw that game and while they defended well for the first 20mns and took the lead totally against the run of play, once Lismore equalised and then took the lead, Inch were playing second best. We did expect more from them but they were playing second fiddle at midfield throughout the game and one exited the venue wondering how did Lismore only score four goals?

Inch will need no reminding of their last visit to the Tallow venue when they lost 0-4 and that result ended their hopes of a semi-final spot in the President’s Cup. No one, except Brideview, felt Inch would concede the four goals to lose their semi-final place.

We do believe that Brideview will win on Sunday and for any other result, Inch will have to play a different game to last Sunday’s defeat to Lismore.

Valley Rgs A v Lismore

We make this the match of the day as Valley Rgs A welcome Lismore to Conna. When the teams met at the Castle Farm Ground three weeks ago, Lismore were leading by the only goal of the game up to the 89th minute, Valley equalised and all felt the points will be shared, but in the 93rd minute Valley scored and went home with the three points. Valley Rgs’ draws - with Inch and last Sunday with Brideview A prior to that - see them two points adrift of Brideview, and only three games played, but with a short league campaign manager Paul Geary will know his team cannot afford to lose many points so early in the competition. Valley will know what to expect from their visitors and while they did take the three points at Lismore, leaving it as late again may not work on this occasion.

Much will depend we believe on the squad of players Lismore will have on Sunday morning and if the visitors play as they did at Inch last Sunday this could be a cracking game. There is very little to choose between the teams as was demonstrated at Lismore and not an easy game to predict. Could end in a draw.

Kinsalebeg v Brideview B

The Avondhu 1st Division leaders visit Fitzgerald Park full of confidence from their three league victories to date, that have seen them score 14 goals and concede just 2 goals. They are the form team of the division and will play a Kinsalebeg team that have lost two of their three games. Brideview have a mixture of youth and experience in their squad and they play a brand of football similar to Brideview A, attacking football with the ball on the ground and crisp passing.

The Tallow team will come into the game as favourites, but should not take anything for granted as Kinsalebeg, depending on the squad of players available, can be difficult to beat on their own patch. We still think Brideview will continue their winning streak and be top of the table at lunch time on Sunday.

Cappoquin/Railway v Valley Rgs B

After their away defeat in Tallow the previous week, Cappoquin/Railway got back to winning ways at home to Kinsalebeg last Friday night and will want to keep winning this Friday night when Valley Rgs B are the visitors to the Danes Field. Valley unfortunately shipped eleven goals last Sunday away to Brideview B and will want to forget about that result on Friday night. We have seen Valley play already and they have a strong squad of players, but they just cannot have the same eleven on the field on consecutive weekends.

Cappoquin/Railway impressed us when we saw them play a few weeks back and we did say afterwards that we felt they are strong contenders for the league title. While they did have a setback two weeks ago in Tallow, they should have their second consecutive league win on Friday night.

FIXTURES

Friday, 11th February - TheAvondhu 1st Division - Cappoquin/Railway v Valley Rgs B 8pm, S Drislane. Sunday, 13th February:

Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier - Valley Rgs A v Lismore 11am, E Cusack; Brideview A v Inch 2pm, K Hayes. TheAvondhu 1st Division - Kinsalebeg v Brideview B

11am, K Hayes.

DELEGATE MEETING

As reported last week the league held a delegate meeting on Tuesday, 1st February at the Conna Community Centre hosted by Valley Rgs.

Unfortunately we do not have a full report of the meeting but from what we have heard, the league voted in a new committee member, Aaron Joyce from the Kinsalebeg club. The committee as we have written on a number of occasions needs at least two more members to help with the workload. However only one new member was voted onto the committee and the league secretary has asked the clubs to nominate another new member until the end of the current season.

The committee proposed that the draw for two cup competitions take place and the draw for the Dungarvan Leader Cup and the Liam Fitzgerald Cup took place.

The Dungarvan Leader Cup draw - Inch v Valley Rgs A, Lismore v Brideview A. Both games to take place on March 17th at 11am.

The Liam Fitzgerald Cup draw - Brideview B v Cappoquin/Railway, Kinsalebeg v Valley Rgs B. Both games to take place on 17th March at 11am.

REFEREE’S SEMINARS

We received confirmation of referee’s seminars taking place this month of February. All the clubs have been contacted by the league secretary, who has asked us to also convey the message through our notes.

The course consists of 9 hours of self-directed learning that the participants complete in their own time, this then is followed by a 6 hour practical session face to face with an FAI referee instructor. Looking at the list, the nearest venue for the face to face is Mounthawk Park, Tralee and will take place on Sunday, 27th February.

The WW/EC Junior League has informed the clubs that if anyone from their club is interested in becoming a referee, the WW/EC Junior League will pay 50% of the cost upon completion and sign up to the referee society.

We have written so many times in the past number of weeks of the shortage of referees in the league at present and once again, ask clubs to help the league recruit new referees. For more information on the course, please contact the WW/EC Referee Society or Sean Sheehan, league hon secretary.

Having heard from a reliable source over the weekend that there will be definitely two former league clubs returning to the Junior League, if this is going to happen, new referees are definitely required. Over to the clubs.

FAI BREAKING NEWS

Just as we complete our notes for this week, we have heard on the sports bulletins on radio and television that the FAI is joining with the English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland federations as part of a joint bid to host Euro 2028.

If the bid is successful it will be a wonderful boost for the FAI and the game of football nationally. Our understanding is the result of the bid will not be known until March 2023. We hope to have more on this breaking news in our notes next week.

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE

Due to lack of space in our notes we were unable to write our segment on the Airtricity League, but we are starting this week to have our usual segment in the notes as we know there are many readers interested in the Airtricity League, especially readers who want to hear about Waterford, Cork City and Cobh Ramblers. Many of those who read our match reports are living abroad and contact us from time to time.

Unfortunately the three clubs will be playing in the 1st Division this season and in total there are nine clubs in the division and we believe the division is going to be difficult for any of the nine to win automatic promotion. The 1st Division will commence on 18th February.

To date, the three clubs have been playing friendly games and games in the Munster Senior Cup.

Waterford played two pre-season friendlies against Cobh Ramblers and Dundalk and won both games. The reports reaching us were all positive and we looked forward to the first competitive game for the Blues when they travelled away to play Treaty Utd in the Munster Senior Cup quarter-final last Tuesday night. Originally planned for the Markets Field, the venue had to be changed late in the day to the Astroturf pitch at UL as the Markets Field pitch was deemed unplayable. Treaty went on to win 2-0. This was a disappointing result as it was felt Waterford had a much better team than Treaty, but the result showed the division is not going to be an easy one to get results.

Since then, Waterford have played Bohemians in a friendly at the weekend at the RSC and drew 2-2 coming from 2 goals down. While only a friendly, this was a good result for the Blues and this Friday will play Derry City at the AUL Complex in Dublin. Waterford will start their league campaign on Friday, 18th February when they travel to play Athlone Town. The Blues first home league game at the RSC will be v Bray Wanderers on Friday, February 25th.

Cobh Ramblers continued their preseason friendlies with a game away to Finn Harps which was played at the home of Maree Oranmore FC. The Ramblers led by a goal up until the last minute when Harps equalised. Cobh play another friendly on Sunday next, February 13th when they travel to Carrig Park, Fermoy to play Fermoy from the Munster Senior League.

Cobh commence their league campaign on Friday, February 18th when they travel to Bishopsgate to play Longford Town and then play at home the following week to Wexford FC.

We are delighted to see that Ardmore’s Sean Barron and Portlaw’s Daryl Walsh have re-signed for the Ramblers and look forward to seeing them in the coming season. At present, Daryl Walsh is out with an injury he sustained when the Ramblers defeated Bandon in the Munster Senior Cup quarter-final. However, he is expected to be back in action in a few weeks.

Cork City travelled to Richmond Park on Saturday last and drew with FAI Cup winners St. Patrick’s Athletic in a friendly and this Friday night play Shelbourne in another friendly at Turners Cross. They will kick off their league programme on Friday, February 18th at the Carlisle Ground against Bray Wanderers. Their first home league game is against Galway Utd.

Cork City also have a Munster Senior Cup quarter-final to play away to Midleton FC.