1-0 to the weather

Last weekend saw all games in the Waterford League cancelled on Friday due to the weather forecast for the weekend and the committee took the correct decision in cancelling all games. The safety of players and the condition of pitches throughout the league were taken into consideration - the fixtures will now be rescheduled in the coming weeks.

In the Dungarvan Leader Cup, the Ballyduff v Cappoquin/Railway fixture for last Thursday night was called off with the pitch unplayable.

In our Memories segment this week, we go back to season 2019/20, a season that we all remember for many different reasons, but especially the Coronavirus that swept through the country from the month of March, resulting in a Government instruction that all sporting events be cancelled. When we look back at this time, only two years ago, we see that the WW/EC Junior League fixtures were cancelled similar to every other league in the country and a heading from the archives tell us it was the longest season ever in the history of the league.

We also look ahead to the two internationals that are taking place at the Aviva, Ireland v Latvia on Wednesday and Ireland v France next Monday night.

WATERFORD LEAGUE

The weather proved to be the winner last weekend in the Waterford League when all fixtures for Sunday last were cancelled by the league committee on St. Patrick’s Day (Friday) due to the weather forecast for the weekend. Clashmore at home to De La Salle was the only fixture here in the west of the county and this will now be rescheduled for another date.

Saturday next, Clashmore will have home advantage against Seaview Celtic in Division 3B with a 2pm kick-off.

Saturday will also see Brideview at home to Dunmore East in Division 2A with a 2pm start. On Sunday, Lismore travel to Waterford to play Red Star in Division 2B with a 11am start.

DUNGARVAN LEADER CUP

There was only one fixture to be played in the Dungarvan Leader Cup, Ballyduff at home to Cappoquin/Railway last Thursday night, but unfortunately the weather saw this game called off as the pitch was unplayable. We do not have any date for the re-fixture as we compile our notes on Monday morning. No doubt the league committee will be in contact with the clubs this week.

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

Wednesday night will see the first of two home games at the Aviva for Stephen Kenny’s Irish team. Latvia will provide the opposition in a friendly. This will be the first get together for the Irish squad as they prepare for what so many are calling, the “big one” on Monday night, with the visit to the Aviva of the World Cup runners-up, France. This is the first group game in the UEFA European Championship 2024 qualifying Group B. Tickets needless to say were snapped up as soon as they went on sale to the general public. The FAI decided to do a “bundle” for the tickets for both games and we are aware of the demand. The game everyone involved in the beautiful game wants to see is the game on Monday night against France, the team that ran Messi and Argentina so close in the World Cup final only a few months ago. France will be without a few of their top names with Arsenal’s William Salibo and Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana out injured, as well as Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante. However, definitely travelling with the French team is 2022 Golden Boot winner Kylian Mbappe who, from what we hear, is who all the young children want to see in the flesh, those lucky enough to have tickets. Also in the squad is top goal scorer Oliver Giroud and Antoine Griezmann and from Bayern Munich, Kingsley Coman.

France will have opened their campaign with a home game on Friday night against Holland and needless to say, Stephen Kenny will be keeping a close eye on this clash as his team will be facing Holland at the Aviva in September.

It is going to be very interesting to see the teams that Kenny will have for the two games, especially the game on Monday against France. The Irish squad includes new member, Celtic’s Mikey Johnston who has declared for Ireland and has received his FIFA International clearance allowing him wear the green jersey. He will be an asset, as will the young Evan Ferguson who is having a very good season at Brighton and continued his scoring exploits with two goals in the cup game on Sunday against Grimsby Town. Missing a goal scorer since the Robbie Keane days, Evan hopefully is the future and listening to the pundits on the BBC at the weekend, all spoke highly of the player. We hope to see him play some part on Wednesday night and also Johnston before the players are announced for the French game.

While Wednesday’s game is only a friendly, Latvia will not make it easy for the Boys in Green and this is literally the start for this young group of players and also for the manager, Stephen Kenny who we all know is under constant scrutiny from his many critics. These Euro 2024 qualifiers will determine the future of the manager as he has had plenty of games as the Irish manager to assess his players and to stamp his way of playing on this team. So far, Ireland and Kenny have achieved nothing and the next number of months will tell us all exactly where Ireland is going. Being a fan of Kenny for many years, we hope Ireland will get out of the group, but without a ball yet kicked, it does appear to be a tall order with France and Holland the two main teams, followed by Greece waiting in the wings.

This Sunday at Turner’s Cross, the Irish U21team play Iceland in a friendly in preparation for the upcoming UEFA U21 Championship qualifying campaign. Manager Jim Crawford has included two Cork City players in the squad for Sunday, goalkeeper Jimmy Corcoran and midfielder Matt Healy. Kick off on Sunday is 4pm.

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE

Series five of games in the second division of the Airtricity League were played last weekend with Waterford at home to Bray Wanderers, Cobh Ramblers at home to league leaders Galway and in the Premier Division, Cork City had Shelbourne as visitors.

Waterford went into Saturday’s game with Bray at the RSC knowing they were eight points adrift of league leaders Galway who had taken three points in their win the previous night at Cobh. The Blues won away to Athlone Town the previous week in a hard fought game. Bray had a very good draw away to Longford Town and as we wrote, in manager Ian Ryan, Bray has one of the best managers in the division in our opinion.

We depended on our colleagues at the RSC for a report on the game as we were out at another fixture on Friday evening. Bray showed their intent from the very start as they attacked the Blues, but Waterford started to create their own chances as the half progressed. It took until the 20th minute before Waterford scored when Ronan Coughlan found the net.

Within two minutes the Blues had doubled their lead when they were awarded a penalty which Coughlan dispatched to the net. However, Waterford were dealt a severe blow in the 28th minute when they were reduced to ten players with a red card flashed to Chris Conn Clarke for two yellow cards, and both yellows in a five minute period. Coughlan then had a chance to complete his hat-trick as he raced into the area, and flicked the ball over the keeper but went the wrong side of a post with the goal wide open. A let-off for Bray, but a chance the Blues would regret at the end of the 90mins.

Playing against ten players, Bray came more into the game and it was obvious they were going to attack strongly and they were rewarded. Paul Martin was forced into two good saves in this period, but just on the half-time whistle Bray scored through Feeney, to cut the deficit and make the second half a tough 45 minutes for the home team.

The second half started and Bray showed their intent, of not just looking for the equaliser, but to go for the winner. The Waterford defence was under constant pressure and the Blues can thank the brilliant goalkeeping of Paul Martin and the experienced Eddie Nolan. The word reaching us was how long before Bray would break through and the goal arrived with 15mins remaining when Murphy eventually beat Martin. Waterford manager Danny Searle was sent to the stand by the referee. But the Blues held out for the draw and a point, but are now seven points behind Galway after only five league games played. Waterford have played three home games so far and taken only two points, two draws and a defeat to Galway. Against that, they have won their two away games against Wexford and Athlone and this Friday they make the trip to the Markets Field to play Treaty Utd. When the teams met at the venue at the end of last season in the first leg play-off, Waterford won comfortably but then had to battle for the victory in the second leg at the RSC. Friday night’s fixture is a must win game.

As we wrote, Cobh Ramblers had league leaders Galway as visitors on Friday afternoon and we were on duty for this game. It was our first time to see either team play this season. Before 1,600 fans, Galway were the better team in our eyes from the very start. Cobh, playing into the club house end, rarely troubled the experienced Brendan Clarke in the Galway goal, while at the other end Lee Steacy was a busy keeper. On 35mins a free to Galway from outside the area saw captain Conor McCormack tip the ball to Killian Brouder and from our vantage point, he curled a beautiful shot around the wall into the corner of the net giving Steacy no chance and this was the score at half-time. It was obvious manager Shane Keegan had much to do during the break with his team, but Cobh’s best player so far this season, Jack Doherty, definitely needed more height up front as he was completely isolated on his own and the high ball was definitely an advantage to the Galway defence.

The second half was more of the same and it was only a matter of time before Galway doubled their score. This they did when Ronan Manning beat Steacy after some sloppy defending, it must be said. The league leaders could have had another but a wonderful tackle by Cian Browne denied substitute Francely Lomboto scoring. The final whistle saw John Caulfield’s team go eight points clear of Waterford with a game more played and five points clear of Cobh and level on games. From the teams we have seen so far in the division, Galway are definitely the best all round team. Speaking to John Caulfield, he told us Waterford is definitely the team to beat this season for the automatic promotion. While the results may not be going their way, he believes they will be a force as the season progresses.

We were impressed with Galway on Friday. Former Ramblers player David Hurley had a very good game, as did former Cork City player Rob Slevin, while another former Cork City player and now captain of Galway, Conor McCormack was involved in the opening goal, but played brilliantly in front of the Galway defence. A player we were seeing for the first time was Vince Borden and he was impressive, apart from scoring the first goal from a free kick. So far in the league he has scored four goals for the league leaders. Cobh definitely have improved since last season, but we think they still need to do much to ensure they stay in the top four.

This Friday, the Ramblers make the long journey to Ballybofey to play Finn Harps who themselves won their first game on Saturday by the only goal of the game against Longford.

By the time our notes appear in print, Cobh will have travelled to play Treaty Utd in the Munster Senior Cup semi-final.

Cork City, after their two marvellous away draws against Shamrock Rvs and Sligo Rvs the previous week in the Premier Division, had Shelbourne as visitors on Friday afternoon. Before an attendance of 5,000, much was expected from City and our colleagues at the Cross kept us up to date with proceedings as we were down the road at St. Colman’s Park.

Unfortunately for the City fans, this was not a good performance by Colin Healy’s team. We were told they fell well below the performances of the two away games, in both games they were leading by two goals but conceded goals in injury time in both to end up with draws. Shels took the lead after only 10mins when Cork City player Josh Honohan headed into his own goal at the Shed end, attempting to head clear from a corner kick. The home team did have an opportunity to equalise a few minutes from half-time when Ruairi Keating passed to Coffey and with the goal at his mercy, his effort went over the bar and at the break, City trailed 0-1.

The large attendance expected a much better response from the Cork City team, but unfortunately this did not happen as it was Damien Duff’s team that found the net within four minutes of the restart with some bad defending by the home defenders allowed a Shels player on his own give Cork City keeper Jimmy Corcoran no chance as the ball nestled in the net at the Shed end.

As the half progressed, my Turner’s Cross colleagues were very critical of the play of some of the team and they created very few chances, although the fans were unhappy with referee Ray Matthews who turned down a penalty shout late in the game when Keating appeared to be bundled over in the area as he was about to shoot. Full time saw City drop home points once again and now find themselves ten points adrift of leaders Bohemians after only six league games.

Cork City’s next game is on Friday week when Drogheda are the visitors.

MEMORIES

This week we go back a few short years to season 2019/20 and when we look through the archives, we discover the Coronavirus dominated most of the weeks headlines with very little football played.

However, we start with the AGM of the WW/EC Junior League which was held on Monday, 17th June, 2019 at the Leonard Fraser Complex in Tallow.

League chairman Liam Fraser welcomed a full attendance of clubs and had a special welcome for Mr. Ger Delaney, administrator/secretary of the Munster Football Association.

The reports of the hon secretary, Paddy Pollard and the hon treasurer, Paddy Mason were both adopted.

The hon secretary singled out the shortage of referees as a disappointing feature of the season just concluded, and said luckily enough we do not have that many games each weekend. Only that referees agreed to double up on Sundays, refereeing two games each, the league would not have concluded as planned. The main reason we believe there is such a shortage of referees is because of the abuse from players and those on the touch lines. The secretary said any complaints by the referees in their reports will be severely dealt with by the committee. Concluding the report, Paddy Pollard said that the past number of years has seen a decrease in the number of clubs in the leagues and one of the reasons the committee is hearing, is that clubs are finding it difficult due to the lack of team managers. Ex-managers told the committee that society has changed so much in the last number of years, with players no longer giving the commitment to turn up each weekend to play and this has caused managers to retire from the game and withdraw from the league.

Mr. Ger Delaney, administrator/secretary of the Munster Football Association, thanked the league for inviting him to the AGM and complimented both the league hon secretary and the league hon treasurer on two very comprehensive reports. In relation to the shortage of referees, he said this had become a national problem. The abuse of referees is one of the main reasons why new match officials are not taking up the whistle.

League chairman, Liam Fraser in a wide ranging report also dealt with the refereeing crisis in both the junior and schoolboys/girls league. Liam went on to say clubs are finding it difficult to have managers to look after the various teams as compared to previous years in the league, no one is prepared to take on the responsibility of organising or managing a team on a weekly basis. The chairman referred to the number of cup competitions the league organise each year as they commemorate those who gave so much of their life in promoting the league and promoting the game of football throughout West Waterford and East Cork.

Liam concluded by asking clubs to nominate some new members onto the committee as there were those committee members who had been involved since day one of the league.

Finally, Liam wished to thank all who helped him in the past number of weeks since he became league chairman.

The election of the new committee then took place. Liam Fraser was proposed as league chairman but declined as he said he was too involved in different areas of the game, both at junior and underage football. He did agree to stay on as chairman until the first delegate meeting when a new chairman would be elected.

The good news however was that two new committee members were nominated and both accepted the proposals, Dick Sheehan and Sean Sheehan, both from the Kinsalebeg club, to join the outgoing committee who were proposed en bloc, Paddy Mason, Michael O’Neill, Liam Fraser and Paddy Pollard. The meeting concluded and little did anyone know as everyone departed for home, what 2020 was going to bring to us all.

The first committee meeting saw the officers of the WW/EC Junior League appointed. Chairman Michael O’Neill, vice chairman Dick Sheehan, hon secretary Paddy Pollard, assistant secretary Michael O’Neill, hon treasurer Paddy Mason, fixture secretary Dick Sheehan, league registrar Sean Sheehan, youth liaison officer and schoolboys/girls representative Liam Fraser, MFA and FAI representative Paddy Pollard.

CAPPOQUIN/RAILWAY WIN BOLGER CUP

The Bolger Cup commenced on Wednesday, 4th September, 2019 and the final was played at Fitzgerald Park on Sunday, 27th October, 2019 with Cappoquin/ Railway defeating Valley Rgs 2-1.

The league commenced the last Sunday in September. In November Lismore, representing the league in the Munster Champions Cup, lost to Doolins Cow from the Cork Business and Shipping League 5-2, played at the Mayfield Community pitch. The same day Brideview lost away to Southend 4-1 in the Munster Junior Cup.

LEAGUE

League fixtures at the end of December and into early January fell foul of the weather with many games called off with pitches unplayable. February saw the league split into two divisions with the Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier and The Avondhu 1st Division. But in the middle of February we heard of Ciara and Dennis for the first time and the wind and rain they brought, causing fixtures to be cancelled. A few games took place and then we were into March and clubs had received their fixtures for March 14th, 2020.

But on March 12th, life for everyone in the Republic of Ireland, and elsewhere, changed. Lockdown arrived and all sport ceased. At the time no one knew how long this was going to last. Originally it was only for a few weeks, then it went further and then the whole country was in lockdown. There is no need for us to go back into all this, but for those involved in sport throughout the country, all sporting activities ground to a halt. In May the FAI gave a directive that if leagues wished to return to complete their leagues they could do so, starting in September, but the season had to be completed by 11th October as the new season 2020/21 would commence nationwide on 18th October.

The other alternative was to cancel the season altogether. The clubs were contacted by email requesting their opinion on what they would like to see happening. The response was to complete the season. With teams only having two games each to play, everyone was in agreement. The committee met for the first time since February at the end of June, social distancing observed. The committee decided, with the co-operation of the clubs and the referees, that the league be completed and that no cup competitions take place.

So, the end of July saw clubs back training and August saw them playing challenge games and the last Sunday in August saw the league recommence, with games in the two divisions taking place. Everyone was delighted when the league games commenced and Valley Rgs and Brideview A won their games in the Premier and were level on points with just one game each remaining and this was against each other on Sunday, 6th September at Leonard Fraser Park. In The Avondhu 1st Division, Brideview B had completed their league programme and had a two point advantage over Cappoquin/Railway who had just one game to play against bottom of the table Valley Rgs B.

In the Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier Division, Brideview defeated Valley Rgs at Leonard Fraser Park 2-1 in the last league game of the season and were crowned league champions. Paddy Pollard on behalf of the Mari Mina Pharmacy presented the League trophy to Eric Hickey, captain of Brideview.

In TheAvondhu 1st Division, Cappoquin/Railway were crowned champions without kicking a ball in their last game as Valley Rgs B were unable to field a team and thus, Cappoquin/Railway were awarded the points and leap-frogged Brideview B to lift the title.

So that is our look back at season 2019/20 and for everyone, a season that will never be forgotten. We saw a headline from one of the weekly notes that read – ‘The longest season ever in the history of the league’. The season began with the Bolger Cup on Wednesday, 4th September 2019 and the last game of the season was played at Leonard Fraser Park between Brideview and Valley Rgs on Sunday, 6th September, 2020. In the twelve months there was only one cup competition played and that was the Bolger Cup at the start of the season and the league itself was concluded.

Let us not forget, sport during those frightening number of months was the least of anybody’s worries. So many people throughout the country lost loved ones through the virus and for all of those people, 2020 is a year that will never be forgotten.

The new season 2020/21 commenced on Saturday, 26th September with the Bolger Cup. The AGM of the league was pushed back for a number of weeks and in our notes next week, we will report on season 2020/21, another season that saw changes in personnel in the committee.