Keanes Jewellers Champions Trophy Semi-Final Preview

Keanes Jewellers Munster Champions Trophy Semi-Final Preview

Keanes Jewellers Munster Champions Trophy Semi-Final
Sunday 09th November 2014
Castleisland Afc ( Kerry DL ) v Park United ( Cork Aul )
Kick off , 2.00pm
Venue , Castleisland
Officials , Derek O Shea, Adrian O Shea and Kevin Cunningham.

By Tommy Naughton

Castleisland Afc and Park United will meet on Sunday in Castleisland with both sides looking to secure their place in the years Munster Final . Castleisland have reached this stage of the competition by defeating the Desmond League Champions Broadford United 7-6 on penalties in Broadford after the game finished 2-2 in the first round . In the Quarter final they had a home win over EMC from the Cork B&S League on a 2-0 score line . Park United are from Mitchelstown and play in the Cork Aul . They received a bye in the first round of the tournament and then travelled away to College Corinthians of the Munster Senior League and came away with a 3-1 win .

Castleisland Afc Player Manager Mike McCarthy had this to say about their season so far and how they are going into Sundays semi final , “We have had a slow enough start to the season, we got a good result against Broadford in the 1st round after penalties and then beat EMC in the 1/4 final. We have 1 game won and 1 lost in da league and have received 2 walkovers so we haven’t much played. We have been missing 5 from our double winning team so far this season and Stan Divane, Dean Poolman and Barry lynch ruled out for Sunday through injury and Shane Loughlin will be in America so our squad will be stretched to it limits. We are expecting a tough challenge Sunday, they have started there season well and have 5 representatives on a strong Cork Aul Oscar Traynor side. We are hoping for a big crowd in Castleisland Sunday and know that home advantage could be vital” .

Dave o Connor is the PRO for Park United and had this to say about this weekends game “Park united Afc travel to Castleisland for Sundays Munster champions cup semi final full of optimism having been unbeaten in all competitions so far this season all be it with no league game played yet. The men from Mitchelstown are certainly picking up where they left off last season whilst winning there 2nd premier Aul title in 3 years. The loss of Gary o Connor through injury and mick Barrett through work commitments is a big blow to Park but this squad has strength and depth and have ready made replacements for both players. We have prepared well and last weeks FAI junior cup game win against Coachford was a tough battle and just the tonic we needed going into this weekends game . As for our opposition ,little is known in our camp about Castleisland but we do know to win any top flight league you cant be bad and as we know the Kerry league has some great teams in it .We will be looking to make it third time lucky for ourselves against Kerry opposition as we lost a Munster junior cup quarter final against St Brendans Park some years ago and a couple of years ago went out at the same stage I think on penalties to Lisselton Fc .All in all we are looking forward to our journey on Sunday and may the best team win.

A full round up of results in the competition can be found HERE