Thursday, January 21, 2010

Cats fight back to beat Newpark

Leinster Schoolboy Senior Trophy
Kilkenny College 4 (Eamonn Walsh, Howard McDonnell, Eoin Finnegan, Jeremy Duncan) Newpark Comprehensive 2(Kevin Maguire, Eric Gardener)
Kilkenny College advanced into the quarter finals of the Leinster Schools Senior Trophy with a 4-2 victory over Blackrock's Newpark CS. Kilkenny took the lead inside two minutes from a short corner, Jeremy Duncan's original shot was saved but Eamonn Walsh finished the rebound. Newpark were level within ten minutes when captain Mark Haughton played a ball into Kevin Maguire, who deflected the ball past George Smyth.

Haughton continued to cause problems for Kilkenny and played Johnny Burns in one-on-one soon after but Smyth saved well and in the 30th minute Newpark had a three-on-one break but Colin Harper intercepted a superb chance for a second goal. Kilkenny continued to work hard and Duncan saw his shot come back of the post. Seconds before half time, Maguire was again through one-on-one with Smyth but his shot slipped just wrong side of the post.

But Newpark did take the lead through a Eric Gardener short corner shot in the second half. Kilkenny were level less than five minutes with Howard McDonnell producing a sensational chip over the Newpark goalkeeper.

The hosts pressed on and were in front with ten minutes remaining when Eoin Finnegan found the net with an excellent strike. Newpark threw bodies forward, looking for the equaliser but were unable to breach the cats defence. And Duncan sealed the win with two minutes left with another well taken goal. Next up for Kilkenny is John Scottus at Serpentine Avenue.

Elsewhere, Sutton Park advanced to the last four of the competition at the expense of Sandford Park. They now await an opponent who will be either Mount Temple, King's Hospital or High School. The former pair play in the first round of the competition on Friday, January 22 and then will go on to play High School in the quarter-finals.

At junior level, Sutton were 3-0 winners against Sandford at UCD on Wednesday. In the U-13 Cup, King's Hos beat High School 3-0 at Danum.

* Words from the Kilkenny vs Newpark game courtesy of Marcos Blake; for all the schoolboy cup draws, click here

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

fantastic effort from newpark! could have won it as well