Historic Day for Summerville Rovers ends in defeat

Summerville Rovers brave run in the FAI Junior Cup came to an end on Sunday against a much-fancied Gorey Rangers side at Portland Park. Gorey raced into an early lead when Paul Brennan raced to the byline before crossing for Cillian Cushe to tap home to shock the large home attendance. Just five minutes later, the visitors extended their lead when Brennan’s cross was headed on by Stephen Moloney and the alert Mark Woods was first to react to score into the roof of the net,

Cillian Cushe came close to extending Gorey’s lead, but Summerville goalkeeper James O’Connor blocked on the line, and it wouldn’t be the last time that the former Geraldines netminder was called into action. Gorey were a threat from set-pieces all game with Sean Murphy heading off the post before Moloney scored the visitors third goal on the half hour mark with a powerful header.

Considering the level of opposition and the way the game was going, Summerville showed great character to continue fighting and were rewarded when a fine strike from 30 yards out from Stephen Kiely evaded the grasp of Alex Dunbar. It certainly raied the belief in the home dressing room. However, any hope of a comeback was quenched when Evan O’Grady was shown a second yellow card and Mark Blake’s side were reduced to ten men. Brennan and O’Brien came close to scoring for Gorey but O’Connor was in inspired form to keep the deficit at two until referee John McNamara brought an end to proceedings.

Last year’s FAI Junior Cup runners up Pike Rovers were also eliminated after a penalty shoot-out defeat to Peake Villa of Tipperary at Crosagalla. Stephen Carroll opened the scoring for Peake with a sweet strike from the right-hand side. Pike player/manager Robbie Williams made a quadruple substitution in the second half including introducing himself and it was the former Limerick FC man who curled a free-kick into the net to level the tie.

However, parity was short lived, and the Tipperary outfit regained the lead when Alan Leahy powerfully headed home from the second phase of a corner kick which wasn’t cleared. In the dying moments, Danny O’Neill’s free-kick was glanced home by Pat Mullins to bring the game to extra-time. With no goals scored, the game went to penalties where the Tipperary. emerged victorious.

There was better luck for the three travelling Limerick sides as Ballynanty Rovers, Fairview Rangers and Regional United all advanced to the last 32 of the competition. After a tight opening 20 minutes, James Fitzgerald gave Ballynanty the lead in Cork against Everton and that set the tone for a largely dominant display thereafter. Fitzgerald added another goal before Adrian Power sealed the win with a third. Eoin Duff and Dave Cowpar (x2) accounted for the Regional goals in a 0-2 win over Coolraine. Fairview Rangers were0-2 victors over Manulla with Stephen Bradley and Jack Arra on the scoresheet.