'Burkey Cup' quarterfinals continue tonight at Oakland Park

The Thomas Burke Cup, sponsored by Impact-NI Complete Accident Management, continues tonight at Oakland Park when Newbuildings face Foyle Harps at Oakland Park. Kick off 7pm.

This has all the makings of a cracking game. Newbuildings have had a very successful season in the Intermediate league finishing as champions. Foyle Harps are the holders of the Burkey Cup and are one of the most successful teams in the Derry area. A big crowd is expected for this game.

The first quarter-final of the competition was played on Wednesday evening past, between Trojans and Maiden City with the Creggan side emerging as 3-1 winners.

This was an excellent game played between two good footballing sides and thoroughly entertained the large crowd present. Trojans controlled the early part of the match and deservedly took the lead when Garvin Feeney was in the right place to finish following a good move involving Cormac Burke and Tiarnan McKinney.

Maiden City responded well and began to find gaps in the Trojans defence. They drew level when a cross-field pass found Sean Carlin free just inside the box and he fired confidently past the keeper.

It was nip and tuck for a period after this but has the half wore on Trojans gradually started to get on top again. They took the lead once more when Tiarnan McKinney created an opening for himself and found the bottom corner beyond the dive of Maiden City keeper, Ray Kelly.

The second half saw Trojans retain their grip on the game and they had a number of opportunity's to make the game safe but a combination of wasteful finishing and good goalkeeping kept the game on a knife edge. The introduction of Darren Coyle proved decisive as one of his first contributions was to play a superb through ball to release Jack McFeely who eventually forced the ball over the line at the second attempt to secure Trojans a place in the semi-final.

Rescheduled

The game scheduled for Saturday between Churchill Utd and Moville Celtic was cancelled as a mark of respect following the tragic death of Alex Smallwoods, son of Churchill chairman Stewart Smallwoods.

Everyone involved with the Burkey Cup would like extend our sincere sympathy and condolences to the Smallwoods family and to all who knew and loved Alex.

The game has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 10 with a 2pm kick off.

On Wednesday evening Creggan Swifts will play Rosemount. These two teams have battled it out in the Saturday Morning League and this will be another fascinating encounter which again should attract a big crowd to Oakland Park. Both games kick off at 7.00pm The rescheduled game on Saturday completes the quarter-finals and the first semi-final will be played on Monday 5th with the second game on Wednesday the 7th.

Trojans would once again like to take the opportunity to thank all our sponsors. Impact-NI Complete Accident Management. Our secondary sponsor, McKeevers Shop, Central Drive, Bay Road Soccer, Gillespie Fuels, Extreme Bounce, Elite, James McDermott Joinery, Mouldings Direct and our own James McClean.

Entry to all games is free but a voluntary collection will be taken up to support Aaron Callaghan.