Glens end long wait for Irish Junior Cup
By Stephen Findlater
GLENANNE produced an excellent first half performance to edge out Pembroke 3-2 and win the Men’s Irish Junior Cup for the third time, ending a 23-year wait to win back the trophy, making it one of the biggest weekend’s in their club history, writes Stephen Findlater.
With their firsts having, the day before, captured the Men’s EY Hockey League following their 4-2 victory over closest rivals Lisnagarvey, the Glenanne seconds were out to make it a perfect weekend.
Glenanne players cannot contain their delight at capturing the Irish Junior Cup for only the third time in the club's history when they beat Pembroke in the decider
Despite the time gap since their last Junior Cup success, Clinton Murphy linked the two teams, playing in both while Graham Shaw was also part of that 1995 vintage but missed the final due to an injury sustained in midweek.
The Glens built a 3-0 lead thanks to goals from Enda Tucker, David Keogh and Daryl Carey before Pembroke fought back with Scott Furlong netting twice, but they were left to rue not making more from their series of 11 corners earlier in the game.
The Glens were up and running almost immediately with David Keogh bearing down on goal inside the first 30 seconds, drawing Simon Thornton into a good save. They also had three corners in the opening four minutes and generally found plenty of joy when lifting aerials to get around the Pembroke attempted high press.
Pembroke took their time in finding their form, but showed some lovely touches on the break with Patrick Good, Geoff Garrett and Sam McElroy combining well while Cian Murphy’s shot hit a foot to start their run of corners.
But just as they were finding their feet, Glenanne struck from a cleverly worked free with Joe Brennan picking a lovely line of pass and Enda Tucker got the necessary redirection to open the scoring.
A further two Pembroke corners were closed out before another counter strike caught Pembroke cold as Thornton was deemed to have taken man rather than ball from a long pass up the middle. It led to a stroke that David Keogh slotted away for 2-0.
Further chances
Both sides had further corner chances in the last 20 seconds of the half but neither were converted.
Pembroke started the second half the brighter with Ben Schutte drawing another stop from Murtagh’s chest before Garrett fired into the side-netting.
They fell further behind in the 47th minute from a classy move, the pacy Adam Clayton getting down the left baseline to flip the ball back into the path of Daryl Carey who got just enough on the ball to clear the line.
From there on, it was a case of Pembroke winning corners. They eventually converted from their ninth set piece with Furlong picking out the bottom corner with 10 to go.
A minute later, Stu Ronan saved off the line at chest-height, his touch slicing the ball over the bar. Furlong had another go with three minutes left, this time walking forward while Glenanne reacted slowly to the injection, but shot wide.
