Thursday, April 17, 2008

ISC Final: Monkstown v Pembroke Wanderers

The Irish Senior Cup takes centre stage this weekend with Monkstown playing Pembroke in the final at Belfield.

The Town have are the big story in this year’s competition and Pembroke’s recent struggles could see the score line being a lot closer than the two sides previous encounters this season, both of which ended 4-1.

Underdog performances against Rovers and Lisnagarvey have given Monkstown the confidence to take on the bigger sides and while they stuttered in the early stages against UCD last week, they soon reverted to type firing in five unanswered goals.

Having said that, Pembroke will, undoubtedly, go into the final as favourites. In recent games, especially against Corinthian and Instonians, they dominated for long periods.

Against Corinthian, they were unable, though, to score the decisive goals to make the game safe and were eventually thankful to a Ronan Gormley save off the line.

The Instonians match was truly bizarre. The Broke were simply breathtaking for 50 minutes, barely letting their Northern opponents into the 25.

If Pembroke can recreate that form then they should have way too much in the tank but, with Fingal, Rovers and Inst making late comebacks, Monkstown’s confidence may be boosted and will know the game will never be over.

Conor Harte is the only injury victim for either side as Pembroke look to add the ISC to last season’s Club Championships while, as I’m sure you’ve heard ad nauseum this week, Monkstown will be hoping to win their first ISC since 1914.

1 comment:

Jason said...

Best of luck to the 'town. It's a great achievement for them to reach the final and I hope their supporters will make it a memorable day out for the team (twelfth man and all that!) regardless of the outcome.