Congrats to St. Marys College
From todays Indo:
St Mary's, Galway 1
Firhouse CC 1
(St Mary's win 4-3 on pens)
ONE part of what would be a truly unique double was completed at Whitehall yesterday when St Mary's College captured the Smart Telecom Dr O'Neill Irish Senior Cup following a sudden death shoot-out.
Celebrations for some of the participants will have to put on hold with St Mary's due to play St Pat's Navan in Saturday's All-Ireland College's senior 'A' football championship semi-final in Longford.
The Galway school had trailed after only four minutes when Firhouse striker Alan Farrington found the back of the net with an instinctive strike from outside the box.
At that stage Farrington and David Cronan were exerting a lot of pressure on the Mary's defence who had centre-half Conor Healy to thank for some excellent rearguard action.
Nonetheless, Farrington managed to get in behind the defence on 36 minutes following an excellent through ball from right wing Glen Coughlan.
But Farrington, having worked himself into a good scoring position, was unable to test the keeper with his subsequent effort.
And at the other end, Healy having ventured forward came close to restoring parity with Firhouse keeper Philip Bergin producing a full length save to keep his effort out.
The second half saw efforts at both ends with Firhouse defender Adam Doran getting his body in the way of an Eoin Concannon effort as St Mary's pressed for an equaliser.
Cross
But with just two minutes remaining St Mary's drew level when Concannon converted a Jason Molloy cross at the far post.
Two ten minute periods of extra time failed to produce a winner before with penalties following time.
And after both goalkeepers had produced two saves each, strikes from Adam Doran (Firhouse) and Glen Ward then forced a sudden death shoot-out.
With the score at 3-3, the advantage then went back to St Mary's with Paul Conroy diving down low to his right to deny Stephen Mahon.
And Darren Smyth stepped up for Galway to convert the match winning penalty.
FIRHOUSE CC - Bergin; Dunne, G Ward, K Ward, Doran; Coughlan, Mahon, Rothery, McEnroe (McDonnell 78; Farrington (Maloney 80), Cronan (Kennedy 104)
ST MARY'S GALWAY - Conroy; Deacy (Egan 74), Healy, Cullen, Hurley; Kavanagh, O'Connell, Whelan, Concannon (Gibbons 95); Molloy, Lynch (Smyth 64)
REF - F Cunningham (Dublin)
Hopefully some GUFC players of the future may lie in waiting here.:)
