BRIDEVIEW NEED THREE POINTS TO RETAIN LEAGUE TITLE

LISMORE NEAREST CHALLENGERS MUST WIN LAST TWO GAMES CAPPOQUIN/RAILWAY RUNNERS UP IN THE 1ST DIVISION

There were only two fixtures down for last Sunday as the league fixture secretary wished to have all the teams level on games, as the league enters the last two league games of the season. However, there were no games played as in the Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier, Inch had to concede the points to Lismore and the result here means Lismore are now just four points behind Brideview with two games each to play, and both play each other on Easter Sunday morning. Brideview need only three points to regain the title they won in 2019/20 and Lismore must win their remaining two games and Brideview lose and draw their two games. This coming Sunday we will have a better idea of where the League trophy will be spending the next twelve months.

Due to Covid-19 the Cappoquin/Railway v Kinsalebeg fixture on Friday night last under lights was called off early on Friday afternoon as the Kinsalebeg club had a number of players down with the virus and as they are games behind with fixtures, decided to give a walkover to Cappoquin/Railway as the club felt it better not to add an extra game to the list of games to play. The points ensure Cappoquin/Railway are the runners up to Brideview B in The Avondhu 1st Division.

This coming Sunday we have the penultimate round of games in the two divisions. Brideview A have Inch as visitors to Leonard Fraser Park, needing three points to clinch the title, while Lismore in second place have Valley A as visitors to the Castle Farm Ground. In the 1st Division, league champions Brideview B play at home to Valley Rgs B.

The league management committee will commence the cup competitions straight after Easter and, having had a look at the plans for the rest of the season, all competitions should be completed before the end of May unless the weather intervenes again.

This is a great compliment to the new committee who took on the role at the end of July last with the retirement of four of the former committee members. We are sure the new members will say it has been a baptism of fire, especially having to deal with unrelated football matters, mostly the Covid pandemic. One must remember that Covid has not gone away and as recently as last weekend, teams were unable to play because of the virus.

The committee have asked for a few new members to join them and help out with the running of the league. Many believe because the league is the smallest in the country that there are no problems, but those of us who have been at the coalface through the years know this is far from the truth as it is rare not to have a problem arising, be it the virus at present or the weather which saw games cancelled a few weeks back with pitches unplayable. But as we always said, all problems can be solved at some stage.

However, a problem that is constantly present is the lack of referees and this has definitely not changed. We have written on this topic for longer than we care to remember and so have other WWEC League PRO’s before us. But we will not go into another rant on the topic this week, but as can be seen further in the notes, three of the WWEC Referees Branch were officiating at a National Cup competition last Sunday which was a great honour for themselves and also for the league.

We shall write in more detail on the referee shortage in future weeks,

CONGRATULATIONS

Through our notes we congratulate three members of the WWEC Referees Society who officiated at a National Cup Competition in Killarney last Sunday.

Referee Simon Drislane, assistant referees Kieran Hayes and Keith Hornibrook took charge of the FAI U17 National Cup semi-final between Killarney Celtic and Corduff from Dublin at Killarney Celtic’s ground.

The reports reaching us from the Kerry venue tell us this was a rip roaring game with the Dublin team winning by 2 goals to nil. The referee’s assessor at the fixture was impressed with the match officials and all of us in the league are delighted to see referees from the smallest league in the country making a name for themselves and the WWEC League on the national stage.

Once again well done to Simon, Kieran and Keith.

PREVIEWS

Sunday will see the second last round of fixtures in the league taking place and in the Premier, we have two of the most important games of the season.

Brideview A will have home advantage on Sunday morning when they play Inch knowing a win and they are the league champions regaining the title they won in 2019/20. At the same time Lismore have Valley Rgs A as visitors to the Castle Farm Ground with the home side hoping for a win and neighbours Brideview lose at home. This then will leave only a point separating the two when they play each other in Tallow on Easter Sunday morning.

Brideview B already crowned champions play Valley Rgs B at Tallow.

BRIDEVIEW A V INCH

When the league commenced back at the end of January, Inch had home advantage against Brideview A and the Tallow side won 2-4. On their last visit to Sexton Park the first Sunday in March, Brideview A lost to the hosts causing a shock throughout the Premier Division as this was the first and only defeat for the league leaders in the seven league games played. We wrote the following week that we got our prediction for this fixture very wrong as we felt on form alone for both teams, that Brideview would take all three points.

Since then Brideview have gone on and defeated both Valley Rgs A and Lismore and have put themselves in a title-winning way. Three points will guarantee them the Premier title from their two remaining games. Needless to say Sunday’s game is the fixture the team and management are concentrating on and the well beaten cliché, ‘a game at a time’.

Inch have been very inconsistent all season and while they did win against Sunday’s opponents a few weeks back, the results have not gone their way in the games played. They lost away to Lismore the following Sunday after defeating Brideview, but won at home two weeks ago against Valley Rgs A, a result that saw Inch leapfrog the Conna team into third spot, and Valley going bottom of the league table.

However, last Sunday Inch were unable to have a team to play Lismore at the Castle Farm Ground and the three points here guaranteed Lismore at least runners up to Brideview, and depending on the last league game in Tallow on Easter Sunday, Lismore may still fancy their chances.

But there will be no talk of Sunday week when Michael Curley leads his team onto the Leonard Fraser Park pitch on Sunday morning next.

Regardless of how wrong we got our prediction on the last occasion they met, we believe the Tallow team are too experienced to get caught twice by the same team in a number of weeks. Having seen them demolish Lismore two weeks ago, Brideview showed us all they are the best team in the league and we expect them to win on Sunday and become league champions on their own patch.

LISMORE V VALLEY RGS A

This is the third league game between these two teams and how the league table has changed since the first game when Valley Rgs scored two goals in the last minute and injury time to beat Lismore at the Castle Farm Ground. Lismore were leading as the last minute of normal time was being played and then Valley hit them for the equaliser and within two minutes scored again to shock the Lismore team. The following Sunday, Lismore lost at home to Brideview, but since then have climbed up the league table but lost heavily away to Brideview two weeks back. They have lost a total of three league games from seven played and know how important Sunday’s game is for them.

Valley dropped points at home drawing with both Brideview A and Inch, the latter game saw Valley very disappointed as they felt they lost two points when they should have been winning three points.

Losing at home to Brideview A and Lismore in the weeks following, saw them slip down the table and when they lost away to Inch they dropped to bottom spot.

It is hard to understand the points the Conna team have lost, as many of us felt they would be the main challengers to Brideview for the league title. We have seen a number of their games, but the defeat to Brideview a few weeks back in which they conceded six goals was their worst performance of the season and saw their title hopes evaporate on the Tallow pitch.

Lismore also conceded six goals at the Tallow venue two weeks ago, a game we ourselves were at and Lismore, having conceded two early goals, had opportunities in the first half to be at least level with the hosts, but they failed to find the net including missing a penalty. Having a player red carded did not help them and in the second half, Brideview took all the chances created and ran out easy winners at the final whistle.

Sunday morning next Lismore cannot afford to miss any chances in front of goal and we expect them to get back to winning ways and keep the pressure on Brideview.

BRIDEVIEW B V VALLEY RGS B

The league champions play their penultimate league game on Sunday afternoon when neighbours Valley Rgs B are the opponents. Brideview B lost their last one and only league game two weeks ago when losing to Cappoquin/Railway. The visitors have had three wins this season, twice defeating Cappoquin/Railway and both games at the Danes Field, and then receiving a walkover from Kinsalebeg due to Covid-19.

One expects Brideview B win and prepare to receive the league trophy the following Sunday at Leonard Fraser Park when they play Kinsalebeg in the last league game of the season.

FIXTURES SUNDAY 10TH APRIL MARI MINA PHARMACY PREMIER

Brideview A v Inch 11am K Hornibrook Lismore v Valley Rgs A 11am E Cusack

THE AVONDHU 1ST DIVISION

Brideview B v Valley Rgs B 2pm S Drislane

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

Tuesday week last the Republic of Ireland played the second of their two friendly or challenge games at the Aviva when they had Lithuania as visitors. A few days earlier the Boys in Green drew with the Number One team in Europe, Belgium. Admittedly, Belgium did not have their strongest team on duty, but regardless, the 2-2 draw was a very good result for Ireland and we all looked forward to the game against Lithuania, a team that are 137th in the rankings. Manager Stephen Kenny decided to make six changes from the Belgium game and the starting eleven had five from Cork, Caoimhin Kelleher, John Egan, Alan Browne, Conor Hourihane, Chiedozie Ogbene in the team.

Before an attendance of over 30,000, the game never reached the heights of the Saturday fixture. It was obvious from the very start that the visitors were going to be defensive with a wall of yellow jerseys across the 18 yard line. Through the years and under different managers, Irish teams have always found it difficult to breakdown defensive-minded teams. Tuesday night was no different and the atmosphere was quiet with spectators waiting patiently for a bit of magic from some of the Irish players. Unfortunately there was no one who appeared capable of giving that pass to get in behind the defence. Ireland did have the ball in the net on four occasions, but all four were correctly ruled out for offside. The goal eventually arrived and it came nearly seven minutes into added time when Troy Parrott found the net with a wonderful strike to send the Irish fans home happy with the result, but doubtful with the display.

This was not a vintage performance by the Irish team and there is no doubt many questions will be asked of a number of players who manager Stephen Kenny gave the opportunity to cement a place in the squad going forward. One has to say this was a very mediocre display against a team that played defensively throughout and goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher had very little to do for the 90mns.

The lack of a genuine goal scorer was again highlighted and while the emergence of Chiedozie Ogbene is definitely a find and Callum Robinson, the latter did not play well on Tuesday night. The team needs a player who can hit the net more often than at present. Ogbene does look the part and so does Parrott.

Stephen Kenny now has a break with his team until June when the Nations Cup commences and the manager and team will be judged on results from those games.

We were delighted when the FAI gave the manager a contract to the end of the Euros and this only helps the stability within the squad of players. The Euros have been his goal and he now has the opportunity of achieving that goal.

From what we have seen so far the players are buying into Kenny’s style, a style that see the ball played from the back and this style has been criticised many times by former Irish internationals. Some of these ex-internationals were critical as soon as Stephen Kenny was appointed manager of the International team.

In the early games the results definitely did not go his way and after losing ten games in succession, the ‘knives’ were out. The defeat this time twelve months ago to Luxembourg really upped the pressure on the manager and gave the critics all the fodder they needed to lambast the players and manager. We have to admit that result was so disappointing for everyone and more especially for those of us who have been Kenny supporters since his days in the League of Ireland. He has brought young players through his term as manager of the U21 teams and developed his own style which he is bringing forward.

With all of the criticism, Kenny stuck with his style of play and have now gone ten games with one defeat and this to Portugal, five wins and four draws. Still the criticism is there, maybe not as high profile as before, but at least supporters of the Boys in Green are coming back to the Aviva as they can see what this new brand of Irish football is doing for the team. At least it is attractive football, not perfect, but we have to accept it is a learning process for so many of the players.

So we look forward to the Nations Cup in June and September with opponents Ukraine, Scotland and Armenia all visiting the Aviva. Let us look forward to the summer.

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE

Friday night last, Waterford played at home to Longford Town in a fixture we wrote last week as a ‘must win’ game. Having lost the two previous away games to Cork City and Treaty Utd, the Blues had lost ground on the new league leaders Cork City. Before an attendance of 1400, the opening half was reminiscent of the previous games with Waterford playing second fiddle for much of the half. The loss of Eddie Nolan with an injury did not help, especially minutes later when the Waterford defence got caught out when Sam Verdon’s shot came back off the crossbar and Darragh Power cleared off the line from Darren Craven’s rebound and the loose ball was then hit to the Blues net by Shane Elworthy to give the visitors the lead which they held at half-time.

The second half saw Waterford come more into the game but again we had repetitions of the two defeats, when the Waterford attack could not find the net. They did continue to attack looking for the equalising goal and a couple of very good saves from Dennison in the Longford goal kept the Blues scoreless. As we entered injury time we felt this was another defeat until the 93rd minute when substitute Louis Britton, who had replaced Niall O’Keeffe with 20 mins remaining, headed to the net to salvage a point for the home team and stopped the rot that one felt was creeping in. A point is better than a defeat, but the result from the RSC is a great result for Cork City who increases their lead at the top of the table.

We have been asked on a few occasions in the past number of weeks why do we think Waterford have disimproved so much in their last few games. In our report of the defeat away to Cork City, we wrote that a number of players did not appear to be of the standard required, even for the 1st division. Also the lack of a goal scorer is causing problems as chances are being created but not finished to the net. To win games, goals must be scored. Maybe, as was pointed out to us by a fan who has seen all seven games so far, is that the opening game result away to Athlone Town appears now to have been a false result.

But we all hope to see Waterford back in the Premier next season, but on the displays so far, this team is a long way off achieving that goal. This Friday night, Waterford make the short trip to St Colman’s Park to play Cobh Ramblers which will be the last game in the opening series of fixtures before the second series commences the following weekend, when Waterford will have Galway as visitors to the RSC followed by the Munster derby on Easter Monday when Cork City visit the RSC.

Friday night should see a big Waterford following at the Cobh venue and this is a game Waterford must win to cut the lead at the top of the table as Cork City have no game this weekend. To achieve the three points, Waterford will definitely have to improve on their performances and displays so far this season.

Cork City travelled to Ferrycarrig Park last Friday night and after a hard fought game, came away with the three points and their fifth league win on the trot and top of the league table.

This was an important win for City. They will be idle this coming weekend, but regardless, they will still be top of the table as the second series of league games commence the following weekend.

After a disastrous start to the league, Wexford have improved in the past few weeks and Cork City were taking nothing for granted as they kicked off.

Former Carrick Utd and Waterford player Jack Doherty, played on Friday night for the home team and over the 90mns was excellent as he led the attack.

THE LEAD

City took the lead as early as the 5th minute when a Darragh Crowley cross was headed to the net by Cian Murphy giving former City and Cobh Ramblers goalkeeper Paul Hunt no chance.

Wexford came into the game as the half progressed with Doherty proving dangerous every time he received the ball. David Harrington in the City goal was kept busy and made a few wonderful saves to deny Wexford an equaliser. Half time arrived with Cork City leading by the 5th minute goal.