Tipperary standard bearers St Michael's march on to another Munster Junior Cup final

St Michael's 2 Avenue United 1

The Saints showed good spirit and tenacity to come from behind with a second half comeback to reach the Munster Junior Cup final, after a fantastic game of football in tough conditions on Sunday afternoon in Cahir.

The Clare side came with intent and forced St Michael’s goalie Aido Walsh into a fine save in just the third minute, as they sprinted out of the blocks.

Once the TSDL side settled, however, they started to create chances of their own and were unlucky in the thirteenth minute when Ed O’Dwyer found Jimmy Carr on the left but his shot went just wide of goal.

Paul Breen did well to head away an Avenue United free kick shortly afterwards, and Jimmy Carr tested the Clare team’s ‘keeper on a number of occasions.

Eventually, in such an open game between two well-matched and very skilful sides, a goal was bound to come and it arrived in the 32nd minute. Saints failed to properly clear a corner and after the ball bobbled around the penalty area, Avenue’s Ronan Kerin forced the ball home from close range.

The Tipperary team had a golden chance to equalise six minutes before the break when Russell Quirke hit the crossbar after a lay-off from Jimmy Carr, but they went to half-time a single goal in arrears.

Old hands in this sort of a game at this stage, the record Munster Junior Cup holders were sharper in the early exchanges of the second period, forcing a number of corners and pinning their opponents back for long periods.

They levelled matters in the 55th minute when DJ Cremins got on the end of a Rhys O’Regan cross to put the ball past Luke Woodrow in the Avenue United goal, to huge cheers from the St Michael’s faithful.

They began to probe deeper after Avenue faded in midfield after a bright first half and went in front on 67 minutes. After winning a free kick, Joey Mulcahy put the ball onto the head of Seanie Guerins and he made no mistake from six yards.

After this the Saints did what they do best, squeezing the life out of a game and giving their opponents very little sight of goal to try to force their way back into the game.

St Michael’s brought in the whole bench of subs to give themselves some fresh legs to close the game out, and held on to once again reach another Munster Junior Cup final.