Sport

St Eunan's get all the breaks

Yesterday's Dr Tony O'Neill Irish Senior Cup final, played at Belfield, saw holders St Eunan's, Letterkenny, retain their trophy…

Thu Apr 21 2005 - 01:00

Yesterday's Dr Tony O'Neill Irish Senior Cup final, played at Belfield, saw holders St Eunan's, Letterkenny, retain their trophy in some style.

Tallaght CS were missing two key players in Alan Healy and Gavin Kavanagh and certainly their luck was out on the day.

In playing five across the middle, they had left Gary Humphries on his own up front. It was not a ploy that worked entirely and the fact they conceded an early goal did not help matters for the Dublin school.

Tallaght, however, acquitted themselves well in certain areas. Gary McCabe was both creative and industrious on the left side of midfield while Shamrock Rovers under-17 player Alan McCormack showed plenty of confidence going forward when making the odd excursion out of defence.

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St Eunan's, with seven surviving members from last year's winning side, found the back of the net on 21 minutes after the unlucky McCormack, under pressure from Gareth Harkin, turned the ball past his own goalkeeper.

The Letterkenny side stretched their lead on the half hour with an unmarked Lorcan Keeney firing home from the edge of the box.

Tallaght were close to reducing the arrears through Gary McCabe's well-struck free kick, but it came off the woodwork. And following that let-off, St Eunan's effectively killed the game as a contest when Bryan Kelly's angular shot took a wicked deflection just before half-time.

Karl Coleman, the Tallaght goalkeeper, produced an astonishing one-handed save to keep out Harkin with 23 minutes gone in the second half.

Although Tallaght defender Steven Nicholl reduced the arrears with eight minutes remaining, Harkin sealed the victory just before full-time when he took a pass from substitute Mark McGowan before making it four.

ST EUNAN'S, LETTERKENNY: Boyle; Rainey, Thornton, O'Donnell, Bradley; Keeney, Connaghan, Greene, Crossan; Harkin, Kelly. Subs: Hanlon for Kelly (77 mins), McGowan for Connaghan (79 mins).

TALLAGHT CS: Coleman; Sullivan, Johnston, McCormack, Nicholl; Hopper, McLaughlin, Ward, McGill, McCabe; Humphries. Sub: O'Donoghue for Sullivan (61 mins).

Referee: C Fitzgerald (Dublin).