St. Kilian’s played New Cross College from Finglas in the final of the Leinster Senior B Cup final. The game was played at Leixlip United’s all-weather pitch facility. St.Kilian’s had played seen off the challenge of Rockbrook by 6-3 in the second round, having received a bye in the first round. This took them to a quarter-final date with reigning Leinster Champions, St.Tiernans.
After accounting for the previous holders (3-2), next up for the team was a semi-final fixture against Trinity Comprehensive from Ballymun. They comfortably won this game and so, entered the final with an air of confidence, though knew that they faced a difficult challenge against a team that had been equally impressive in reaching the provincial final and had been runners up last year.
The game started brightly and chances fell to both teams before New Cross made the breakthrough after 18 minutes, scoring a headed goal from a well delivered free kick. Five minutes later, St.Kilian’s almost found the net as Jessie Kamm broke forward, rounded the keeper but was denied by a last gasp clearance by the defender on the goal line. From our resulting corner, New Cross broke away and added another goal to their tally, doubling their lead. St.Kilian’s re-grouped and began to probe the defensive line of New Cross. They had another near miss from Dillon Fox before disaster struck and we conceded a third just before halftime.
At halftime, the prospects were looking bleak. However, the young team showed their mettle and took the game to New Cross. The second half saw St.Kilian’s go close on a number of occasions but failed to find the net. Jessie Kamm had an effort go narrowly wide, whilst Phillip Redmond got into two good shooting positions only to be thwarted by an alert New Cross keeper. Robbie O’Leary, Matthew Barker, Dillon Fox and Ferdia Geary continued to work tirelessly against an older, more experienced midfield and created further chances, the most notably falling to David Noone who’s effort was cleared from the goal line again.
New Cross didn’t go out of the game completely in the second half and continued to offer a real threat to the St.Kilian’s defensive line but Josh Leonard and Jonas Carew marshalled the group excellently, with Allesandro Del Gener coming to the rescue occasionally in goal.
So, New Cross progress to travel to Waterford for the All-Ireland semi-final against the Munster champions. However, their experience from last year’s Leinster final defeat definitely aided them in this encounter and we can assume that the same will apply to St.Kilian’s, the majority of who’s squad will be available again for the next two years.
Back Row ( L to R ) – Finn Schonfeld, Robbie O’Leary, Phillip Redmond, Dillon Fox, Allesandro Del Gener, Patrick Gusinde, David Noone, Matthew Barker, Josh Leonard Front Row ( L to R ) – Max McCabe, Jessie Kamm, Ferdia Geary, Nick Carswell, Jonas Carew, Denis Lebrun, Roko Stojanovic, Cillian Bourke, Cian Handschuh
Robbie O’Leary closes down their Shamrock Rovers playmaker, Cian Kavanagh
Nick Carswell denies a New Cross attack
Leinster Senior B Cup Final – Jessie Kamm about to beat the defender but his shot is narrowly wide.
Finn Schonfeld about to cross the ball.
