League AGM set for Thursday, 14th July

League secretary Sean Sheehan contacted us at the weekend with copy of the e-mail sent to all clubs detailing the date, time and venue of the league’s annual general meeting. We publish this further into the notes.

On a number of occasions we have written that this AGM is one of the most important for a number of years as it is twelve months almost to the date when the new committee was elected. Last year’s AGM was held on 26th July, 2021.

The new committee elected on the night have worked hard to ensure the smooth running of the league and added two new extra cup competitions. Since the pandemic over two years ago caused all sorts of problems for everyone involved in sport, not all competitions in the league were able to take place. Since last August all competitions were played, including the two new cups, the Dungarvan Leader Cup and the Pollard President’s Cup. Players were ensured of games each weekend since the commencement of the league back last September.

Weather was a disruption and Covid also forced a two week break, but credit here as we have written before to everyone involved, all games and competitions were played and completed within the planned timeframe. One must not forget that the new committee was starting from the very start, as none of the four had been on the management committee before and they were taking over from what we wrote previously, was one of the most experienced committees in any league throughout the country.

But we note from the e-mail, the league secretary is asking clubs for nominations that will help out the committee in the new season. Regardless of the size of the league, a strong committee is always needed and the more that can help the better. Anyone who has been involved in committees through the years will agree.

To compile our notes each week we depend on the league committee, more especially the league secretary to furnish us with league news for publication and the secretary has always made himself available to our calls or emails and we have listened to him when he tells us help is needed.

We also ask clubs to ensure the committee has at least two new names for the AGM. Sean informs us that any new committee member need not be afraid of getting too much “work”, but just be available to help out. Let us wait and see the response.

Sean informed us that he will be meeting with the WW/EC Referees Society to discuss the refereeing situation for the coming season and see what needs to take place to help recruitment of new referees. As all the clubs know, this is an area in the league needing help as there is a shortage of referees, not only in the WW/EC League, but throughout the country. Needless to say, a subject we will keep returning to during the summer break.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

We received a copy of email from league secretary, Sean Sheehan that he sent to all the clubs last week.

The league is delighted to announce and give notice of the West Waterford East Cork Junior League 2022 Annual General Meeting which will be held the hotel in Tallow (Clancy’s) on Thursday, 14th July, commencing at 7.30pm.

We please ask if you have any nominations for the management committee that these are put forward before the meeting in writing, so I can add these to the agenda, and they are put forward, on or before July 7th, the agenda will be sent out in advance of the meeting.

Can you all confirm your attendance by July 7th. We look forward to seeing you all in attendance on July 14th - Sean Sheehan, hon secretary WW/EC Junior League.

INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL

The main news on the international scene was the draw for the Irish U21 team in a knockout qualifier over two legs in the UEFA U21 European Championship. Ireland have drawn Israel with the first leg to be played at Tallaght Stadium and the second leg away. The games to be played 19th-27th September.

When the draw was announced Irish manager Jim Crawford said they are formidable opponents as they finished ahead of Poland and Hungary in their group, losing narrowly to group winners Germany in each of the two games. Five of the Israel U21 team have since been called up to the senior squad and this shows how strong this U21 team will be.

If Ireland do manage to win over the two legs, this will be the first time an Irish U21 team has qualified for finals and we all hope that Jim Crawford, assisted by Waterford’s duo of John O’Shea and Alan Reynolds, will have the green flag flying next summer.

AIRTRICITY LEAGUE

Waterford played their first league game in four weeks on Friday night when Bray Wanderers were the visitors to the RSC. Bray are having a bad run of results this season, but are still a formidable team with the long serving Pat Devlin at the helm.

The Blues were on a winning run of six games under the joint management team of David Breen and Gary Hunt and agreed to stay with the new manager Danny Searle, who was appointed the previous week. On a desperate night for football and before an attendance just short of 1,000, non-stop rain throughout the 90mins made conditions difficult for both teams.

Neither team caused too many problems for the opposing defences in the opening half when the chances were few, although Waterford did create a number, but did not work goalkeeper Stephen McGuinness and the first half ended scoreless.

Within 8mins of the restart, Waterford took the lead - Tunmise Sobowale passed to Roland Idowu out on the right wing and he gave the perfect pass for Louis Britton to shoot past McGuinness to give the Blues the lead.

Minutes later Phoenix Patterson had the ball in the net but this was ruled out for offside. McGuinness was then forced into making a very good save from Patterson and he saved again later from Richard Taylor. The final whistle sounded and the Blues recorded their seventh consecutive league victory and their first under new manager Danny Searle. The manager later said he was happy with the display and more especially, with the result and a clean sheet. With Galway drawing at home to Treaty and Cork City winning in Turner’s Cross, Waterford are now 7 points adrift of Galway and 8 points behind leaders Cork City. Waterford have a game less played than the two leaders. Much can change on Monday night last as there is another schedule of games with the three top teams all playing.

By the time our notes appear in print Waterford will have travelled to Athlone Town Stadium to play the bottom team in the league. Athlone had no game last Friday night, but they caused a shock three weeks back when, at home, they defeated Cobh Ramblers. But Waterford will have had the advantage of playing their first game in four weeks on Friday night and we believe they will take all three points.

Next Friday night is definitely the game of the night when Waterford travel to Eamonn Deacy Park to play Galway. Some loyal Blues fans believe the games against Cork City and Galway will show the strength and depth of the Blues squad, as without doubt from what we have seen, Cork and Galway are the two best teams in the division.

When Waterford last played at Eamonn Deacy Park on 4th March and before an attendance of 2,500, they were leading 0-2 at half-time courtesy of Junior Quitirna and Eddie Nolan, but gave away two goals in the second half for a share of the points. Only for Brian Murphy being at his brilliant best in the last few minutes, the Blues could have made the journey home pointless.

The return game at the RSC on 15th April saw Galway score after 12mins and this was the only goal of the game and the third league defeat. We were very critical of the display on the night and three days later, Easter Monday, Waterford lost again at home, this time to Cork City. Within two days, manager Ian Morris had lost his job and the rest is history.

Galway will be a real threat on Friday night, but from we have seen and what we hear, Waterford have a squad that has been playing well following their seven victories. A draw will be a good result, but a win will definitely be so much better.

On 8th July Waterford play Wexford at the RSC and the following week, the Blues travel to St. Colman’s Park to play Cobh.

As we start to write our Airtricity segment, we have just heard Waterford FC is for sale which comes as a surprise to us. We will write more on this when we hear more during the week. We only hope this news is not going to affect the performance of the team on the field of play.

Cork City and Cobh Ramblers met on Friday night last at Turner’s Cross in the local derby. In the two previous meetings this season, Cork city have won on both occasions and went into the game as favourites.

Since our notes appeared last week the Ramblers parted company with their manager Darren Murphy following thirteen league defeats, but the last defeats, away to bottom of the league Athlone Town and then at home to Wexford, saw the manager and his backroom staff step down. Cobh appointed Ivan Bevan as interim manager starting with Friday’s local derby.

In what can only be described as terrible weather conditions, non-stop rain fell throughout and before an attendance of 2,300, this included Ireland manager Stephen Kenny.

City took control of the game early in the opening half, but failed to trouble Sean Barron in the Cobh goal. In fact, the standard in this half was poor and a much better performance was needed from both teams to excite the attendance. After the scoreless opening half, the goal the home team were waiting for arrived with 25mins remaining and was scored by substitute Darragh Crowley, following a cross from Cian Bargary that was headed onto Crowley by Cian Coleman and City had the lead. Indeed, Coleman then forced a brilliant save by Barron to keep it a one goal game, but in truth, Cork City never looked in danger as the final whistle approached.

Word then came through that Galway could only draw with Treaty Utd at Eamonn Deacy Park and this saw Cork City leapfrog Galway to top of the table and a one point lead.

Cobh’s defeat see them after losing 14 league games from 18 games played and lie second last in the table. This is disappointing for the Ramblers and their supporters as many felt they had a good enough team this season.

We ourselves felt when we heard the news of the manager’s departure that Franny Rockett was the obvious candidate to take over for the interim, but he along with the backroom staff also departed.

On Monday morning, Cobh Ramblers announced the appointment of Shane Keegan as manager. Keegan is without doubt one of the most experienced managers in League of Ireland management having worked with Galway, Wexford and Dundalk just to name a few clubs. No doubt he will have a very big influence with the players, especially the younger players and while it is late in the season for the team to move too far up the table, at least he can start to build for next season.

Shane Keegan will be in place for Cobh’s next game which is at home to Treaty Utd on Friday night and the Ramblers will travel on Friday week to play Galway at Eamonn Deacy Park. A result against Treaty will be a big boost for the new manager, team and supporters.

Cork City will have played by the time our notes appear in print as they played away at the Carlisle Ground on Monday night to Bray Wanderers and the big game for them is Friday, 15th July when Galway are the visitors.

LOOKING BACK AT SEASON 2021/22

For the past two weeks we have looked back at the teams that have played in TheAvondhu 1st Division and this week we commence our look back at the teams that competed in the Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier Division. We take a look at the two teams that finished last and second last.

As we always write, we do not criticise any team or player, just a run down game by game for each club. We start with the team that finished last, Inch, and they finished level with Valley Rgs A, but with a worse goal aggregate.

The season kicked off with the Bolger Cup and Inch played their first group game at home against Valley Rgs B at Conna and came away with a 4-2 victory. Their second game was away to Cappoquin/Railway under lights at Cappoquin. In a high scoring game, the home team came out on top 4-3. With Valley Rgs B losing their two group games and Inch winning one, Inch automatically qualified for a semi-final, but they were pitted against the holders Brideview A and this was played under lights at Cappoquin on Wednesday, 6th October. Unfortunately, Inch had no answer to Brideview’s attacking and the cup holders ran out very easy winners. This ended Inch’s involvement in the Bolger Cup and they turned their attention then to the new cup competition, the Pollard President’s Cup.

In the opening game they travelled to the Castle Farm Ground to play Lismore in the first leg and while short a number of their first team squad, they gave Lismore a very hard game, losing 1-2. The following Sunday at Sexton Park, Brideview B were the visitors and the report of the game tell us it was a cracker with seven goals scored and Inch coming out on top by the odd goal of the seven.

Inch then travelled to Leonard Fraser Park for the second leg against Brideview B and won here easily 2-7 and 11-4 on aggregate. The following Sunday Lismore were the visitors to Sexton Park in the second leg with a one goal advantage. However, it was Inch who dominated the game from the start and won 3-1 and over the two legs came out on top 4-2.

Sunday, 21st November Inch played Brideview A at Sexton Park and caused a shock with a Stephen Murphy goal the only score of the game which they took to Tallow the following Sunday morning for the second leg.

Apart from winning the game, Brideview needed four goals to qualify for a semi-final spot. While Inch played well and battled hard with their goal advantage from the first leg, the Tallow team attacked non-stop to get the goals that would see them into a semi-final and they achieved this with a 4-0 victory and Inch were out of the competition.

Their games in the new competition one felt augured well for the league campaign which commenced after Christmas. The first league game for Inch was a home fixture against Brideview A with the Tallow team winning 2-4. This was followed up with a draw away in Conna to Valley Rgs A 2-2, which was a good result for the visitors. They then travelled to Lismore but lost 4-2.

The following week their away game in Tallow suffered due to bad weather and pitches being unplayable. The same applied for the Inch club over the next two weeks and they did not play again until the middle of March when they had Brideview A as visitors. Thanks to two goals from the long serving Leonard Byrne our prediction was wrong as Inch won 3-1, which was to be Brideview’s only league defeat of the season.

Two weeks later Inch played away to Lismore and were defeated 6-0. The following Sunday Valley Rgs A were the visitors to Sexton Park and a Mike Foley goal was the difference and this was Inch’s first league victory in seven games. Into April and Inch had to go to Leonard Fraser Park to face a Brideview A team that needed just three points from two league games to retain the league title. Unfortunately for Inch, they met a Brideview team that was intent on winning the title on the day and won 4-0. They ended their league campaign level with Valley A, but with more goals conceded.

In the Dungarvan Leader Cup, Inch played their semi-final under lights at Cappoquin on 24th April and lost 2-4 to Valley Rgs A.

In the Ned Barry Cup, Inch conceded a walkover to Brideview A as they were unable to have a team on the appointed date and this completed the season for the Inch club.

Not a great season for Inch, but looking at the games we reported from Sexton Park, they had a number of outstanding players, in Michael Rohan, Mike Foley, Conor McNamara, Kieran Lane and the evergreen Leonard Byrne, all who have given years of service to the Inch club.

With a very strong underage section, the future has to be bright for the club.

VALLEY RANGERS A

We now turn our attention to Valley Rgs A who finished level with Inch, but had less goals conceded to finish second last. We mentioned at the start of the season that Valley A will be the threat to Brideview’s dominance of the league, but unfortunately this did not turn out to be a correct prediction, as over the course of the season they did not fulfil what we felt they had as a team, especially losing three cup finals to their neighbours Brideview. Paul Geary had a strong squad, but inconsistency cost them at the end of the season.

The Bolger Cup group games the second week in September saw Valley Rgs A and Brideview draw 3-3 at Conna. In the second game they defeated Kinsalebeg 2-0 to finish runners-up in their group on goal difference and played Cappoquin/Railway in the semi-final, winning 4-1 to set up another Bolger Cup final with Brideview.

Played the 10th October at Fitzgerald Park, Valley lost out 1-3 in a game where they created chances but could not find the net, but over the 90mins the better team won.

Valley Rgs then travelled to Waterford to play St. Saviours in the FAI Junior Cup and after a cracking game, lost by the odd goal in seven to the host club.

In the Pollard President’s Cup first leg, Valley easily accounted for Cappoquin/Railway winning 6-0 and the following week defeated Valley Rgs B 8-2 in the club derby, and then met in the second leg with the A team again coming out on top. They then defeated Kinsalebeg and received a walk-over from Cappoquin/Railway and this saw Valley Rgs A into the cup semi-final to play their neighbours, Brideview.

That semi-final game we reported on and wrote was one of the best games of the season so far and most enjoyable for the neutral. Brideview won 2-1, but this result was much about the brilliant goalkeeping of Jamie Murphy who kept the Valley attack at bay with a string of wonderful saves throughout.

When the league commenced at the end of January, Valley Rgs A won at Lismore 1-2, coming from a goal down in injury time to claim all three points. But the following Sunday at home they could only draw with Inch 2-2 which was a disappointment for the Valley management. Brideview A were the next visitors to Conna and the game ended 2-2 and this result saw Valley drop four points at home in consecutive games.

Bad weather saw games postponed at the end of February and into March when Valley travelled to Tallow to play Brideview A and the Tallow team proving the better side, coming out on top 6-0. A week later Valley lost again and conceded four goals to Lismore, ten goals in two games, and all of a sudden Valley had slipped to second last in the league table which surprised everyone.

Then at the end of March came a shock result to us, when Valley lost to a Mike Foley goal at Sexton Park to give Inch the points and send Valley to the bottom of the Premier. Lismore then won at Conna 1-2 and this gave Lismore the runners-up spot in the league and Valley received a walk-over from Inch in the final fixture and the goal difference saw Valley go second last in the table.

In the Dungarvan Leader Cup, Valley Rgs A played Inch under lights at Cappoquin on 27th April and won 4-2, setting up a final against neighbours Brideview A at Tallow. In the first ever Dungarvan Leader Cup final, Brideview defeated their close neighbours 4-1. The report tells us Brideview led 3-1 at half-time and over the 90mins were the better team with the experienced midfield of Brideview the big difference between the teams.

In the Ned Barry Cup, Valley Rgs A received a bye and were to play Cappoquin/Railway in the semi-final but the Conna team received a walk-over from the Cappoquin based club and once again, we had another Valley Rgs and Brideview cup final.

The Ned Barry Cup final was played at the Castle Farm Ground on Saturday, 21st May and before a large crowd Valley lost out 1-4, which was the third occasion this season that the team lost out in a cup final to the Tallow club.

Valley did have chances in both halves, but could not take advantage and put the ball in the net, whereas Brideview took whatever chances were presented and could have added a few more scores only for the brilliance of Valley ‘keeper on the night, Alan Carr who was outstanding.

So this ended the season and Valley will look back at the season, a season that for themselves they will be disappointed with. But they have the players that can bounce back for the new season with players of the calibre of Facunda in goal, John Carr, Jack Le Zac, Kevin Cotter, Alan Carr and young Tom Hartnett, all will be expected to be at their best when the season kicks off again. In Paul Geary they have an excellent manager and as a club, great credit is due to everyone involved, more especially as they have two teams competing each weekend in the league.

Next week, we will look at the top two in Mari Mina Pharmacy Premier.