JOHN Leahy has reminded defending champions Clonakilty Soccer Club about the perils of Beamish Cup shocks.
Clonakilty are home to Championship high-fliers Bay Rovers in a Beamish Cup round-one tie at Darrara College this Sunday morning (11am), and it’s a fixture that Leahy is wary of.
In Clon’s cup-winning run last season, Chris Collins scored a last-gasp winner in the 2-1 opening round derby win against Clonakilty United. Following that, they needed penalties to beat Drinagh Rangers B after a 1-1 draw. Clon’s quarter-final and semi-final went to extra-time, before winning the final against Drinagh Rangers – the cup champs didn’t win any game by more than one goal, which highlights the competitiveness of the Beamish Cup.
‘Lorne (Edmead) and myself have drilled into the players just how difficult this game is going to be,’ Leahy said.
‘With the conditions at this time of the year and the shocks that you get in a cup, we know how tricky this game will be. There will always be a few shocks in the cup and we need to make sure that we aren’t one.
‘Look at us against Clonakilty United last year, we scraped through, and that was the story in a few of the rounds, like against Drinagh B. These games are about getting through them. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0, 2-1, to get through it is the main thing.’
As defending Beamish Cup champions, Clonakilty Soccer Club are the scalp that everyone wants – and Bay Rovers are first up. Rovers are up to third in the Championship after back-to-back away wins over Mizen Hob and Skibbereen Celtic last month. They have won four of their six away league games which should serve as a warning for a Clonakilty team that has turned Darrara into a fortress; they went undefeated at home when winning the Premier Division last season and are unbeaten at home in the league, too, in this campaign.
Clonakilty Soccer Club captain Reuben Henry raises the Beamish Cup.
Winning the Beamish Cup last season, for the first time in 16 years, sparked huge celebrations, and Clonakilty Soccer Club don’t want to relinquish their grip on the cup.
‘Since the clubs (Clonakilty AFC and Clonakilty Town) amalgamated we seem to be a good cup team and we have gone well in the cups, but it took us four attempts to win the Beamish Cup last time so we know how tough it’s going to be,’ Leahy said.
‘We want to win every game we play and every competition we are in – that’s the attitude we have. We will be going for the cup again, but we’ll face a tough game against Bay Rovers. They are a fine young team that plays attacking football, and they have nothing to lose. They will have no fear whatsoever.’
The magic of the Beamish Cup isn’t lost on Leahy: this is the competition that all West Cork League clubs would love to win.
‘It’s huge,’ he stated. ‘Since I started playing myself way back in the 1980s this is a competition every team wants to win; it means a lot to everyone.
‘Look at the final in Lyre last year against Drinagh, and I’m not just saying this because we won it but I think the Beamish Cup final should always be played in West Cork. There was a huge crowd in Lyre, the cup brings out the crowd, and it’s great for the West Cork League to have that excitement and chance to capture the imagination of the local sports fans.’
Leahy also feels that his side are about to find their stride as we enter the second half of the West Cork League season. The reigning Premier Division champions currently sit in fourth place, but have games in hand on the teams above them. Leaders Drinagh Rangers have 22 points after nine games, Castletown Celtic have 20 points after 11 matches, Dunmanway Town sit on 17 points after eight games, while Clon have 16 points after six games. Their latest outing was a 6-1 Parkway Hotel/Maybury Coaches Cup quarter-final win away to Skibbereen AFC, with all six Clon goals coming into the second half.
‘That was a good result. It was a tough first half and they set up defensively but once we got the opening goal we got going.
The squad is starting to get stronger, we have a few lads back and we want to push on now,’ Leahy said.
‘I said at the start of the season that you can afford to lose only one game in the Premier and it looks like it’s going to go down the wire.’
This weekend, the Premier Division title race will take second place to the start of Clonakilty’s Beamish Cup title defence and their determination to avoid a giant-killing cup shock.
