Glens silence Monks’ to bring home Mills Cup

GLENANNE Senior Men’s side secured their sixth Mills Cup title and first in nine years as they took down Irish Cup holders Monkstown 3-2 on penalties after their match had finished level at two goals apiece in Grange Road on St. Patrick’s Day, writes David O’Malley.

Glens twice came from behind in normal time to force penalty shuttles and David Keogh, who converted two times, and goalkeeper Leo Micklem emerged the heroes.

Monkstown took an early lead from their first short corner of the game as Micklem failed to get a foot to David Cole’s low dragflick.

However, the reply was almost instant from the Tallaght side. Joe Brennan stole possession in the ‘Town’ half and the ball passed through the sticks of Gary Shaw and Stuart Ronan before being touched home by Eddie O’Malley on the back post.

The remainder of the half was a cagey affair with both sides taking spells in the sin bin as the umpires looked to keep control of the game.

And it was Cole who put Monkstown back in front shortly before the break as he converted once again from a dragflick; although the Tallaght side argued that it should have been disallowed due to an attacker entering the circle before it had been taken.

Glenanne pushed hard in the second half as Irish international Sam O’Connor took a grip on proceedings and they had several short corner chances to pull level but Brennan, Stephen Brownlow and O’Connor all failed to convert.

It was from a set piece that they did eventually get the equaliser as Brownlow ripped home a dragflick to the left of David Fitzgerald in the Monkstown goal.

With neither side serving up a winner, the game progressed to the now customary penalty shuttles, whereby each player has eight seconds to score a 1v1 with the goalkeeper.

The format appeared to be favouring the netminders early on as neither side found the net in the first three rounds.

Keogh and David Carson both converted stylishly in the fourth round and Micklem denied Jason Lynch to leave things poised nicely for Glenanne but O’Malley could not convert so the shootout moved to sudden death.

O’Connor and Carson both scored before Keogh clattered home on his reverse and Micklem – making his fourth save of the shootout – denied Kyle Good to help deliver the cup to Tallaght for the first time since 2008.

GLENANNE: L Micklem, D Keogh, J Brennan, S O’Connor, P Byrne, N Byrne, S Brownlow, C Kennedy, G Shaw, E Tucker, S Ronan. Subs: R Rixon-Fuller, E O’Malley, A Clayton, C O’Neill, R Couse