Brendan Boland's screamer secures first trophy for south Tipperary soccer club Powerstown

Powerstown 3 Two-Mile-Borris 2

A wonder strike in the second half of extra-time gave Powerstown victory in the Tipperary Southern and District League Division Three Shield final against Two Mile Borris at Celtic Park in Clonmel.

In a game played in glorious sunshine in front of a large attendance, the teams played out a tense and at times thrilling game of football.

Powerstown, who have yet to face a play-off to decide whether they will win the Division Three league title, started better and had the ball in the net in the sixth minute, only to see their celebrations cut short when the ball was adjudged to have gone out of play earlier in the move.

Three minutes later they tested the ‘keeper again when Conor McGrath had his first shot in anger, but Ashton Jordan was up to the task in the Borris goal.

It took until the twelfth minute before Borris got their first shot away, when Jake Jordan beat three players with some silky dribbling before pulling the ball back to Robert Jordan, who sent his effort just wide of the upright.

The scoring was opened in the 15th minute when Powerstown’s Cian Crowe made a lung-bursting overlap down the right wing from his full back position, and forced a brilliant save with his feet by the Borris goalie. But with Crowe out of position, Borris launched a quick counter attack and worked the ball across the pitch to Jake Jordan and he fired to the net to give his side the lead.

This caused Powerstown to redouble their efforts and they equalised in the 27th minute after a long clearance was won by David Grace and he slid the ball to the net from just inside the area.

The game was flowing over and back until four minutes before the break, when Powerstown veteran Gino Lonergan was taken down just outside the area at the end of a promising attack. However, that didn’t deter Lonergan, as he stood up and curled a magnificent effort to the net, leaving the ‘keeper stranded.

There were no more goals in that first half, and Powerstown were nearly handed a gift four minutes into the second when the Borris goalie handled the ball just outside his area, but the resultant free kick flashed wide of the post.

Three minutes later, the game was level again. Borris won a series of corner kicks, the last of which saw the Powerstown ‘keeper drop a cross into the area, and Ciaran Maher poked home from six yards.

As the second half wore on, the intensity of the game dropped in the heat, with Powerstown carving out the best of the chances. The best came in the 67th minute when a beautiful through ball found Darren Murphy in acres of space but his shot only found the side netting.

That was the last real opening in normal time, and the game got somewhat scrappy as the teams started to use their benches, making a lot of substitutions.

When the game moved into extra-time, Powerstown had two good chances in the first three minutes, the first of which saw Brian McKeown skimming the outside of the post with a free kick and a minute later Darren Murphy found Conor McGrath in front of goal, only for the ball to be taken off his toe as he wound up for a shot.

It looked that neither side would break the deadlock and that it would take penalty kicks to separate the teams, but five minutes from time Borris cleared a ball from their area and it was controlled and volleyed by substitute Brendan Boland, who hit a magnificent effort from all of 35 yards to the back of the Borris net.

This sent the Powerstown team and supporters into delight and they closed out the final few minutes for a historic first trophy win in the team’s short history.