ARDFIELD FC are the story of this season’s Beamish Cup. The Championship club has beaten two Premier Division sides en route to the quarter-finals. First, Dunmanway Town 4-3. Then Beara United, 5-3. They now face fellow Championship side Spartak Mossgrove on Sunday at 2pm in the Showgrounds, Clonakilty.
The background to Ardfield’s success is even more staggering. The club hasn’t competed in the Premier since 2013 and didn’t compete at adult level in the West Cork League between 2016 and 2023, mostly down to a lack of players.
They came back into the fold for the 2023/24 season and now have a very young team. Only one player, Peter Barrett, is above the age of 25. Most of the players started out with the club at the age of six or seven and played up to when they were 16. That group of players left before coming back to the club for the start of this season.
‘We started an adult team last year for the first time in a long time and a lot of people wanted to see whether we would fall or break. We kept going and a lot of them came back this year, which improved us,’ manager John Lawless told The Southern Star.
‘They have all played with each other for years, it’s just about getting to know each other again, which is great.’
Lawless and his assistant Sean Lenihan have made this crop believe, despite being second from bottom in the Championship. The English soccer team which Lawless compares them to is an interesting one.
‘When we first saw we were playing Dunmanway in the preliminary round, we were going “oh my God, here we go again”, but as we said to the lads, “it’s like when Wigan beat Manchester City a few years ago in the FA Cup final, that is the way we are going to treat this game.” We went out and treated it that way and we had a bit of fortune but I thought we played very well that day as well,’ the Ardfield boss told The Southern Star.
It is interesting to look at the similarities between Ardfield and Wigan. Both last competed in their premier division/league in the 2012/13 season. Both have produced cup giant killings. Both had a striker ‘on fire’ in their cup ventures. While Wigan had Will Grigg, the West Cork club have Paul Hodnett – Ardfield’s marksman has scored seven goals in his last two cup games and 14 goals in nine games this season.
‘It’s going to be really important to keep him fit,’ Lawless said. ‘Paul has been outstanding and he got another hat-trick just before Christmas as well (against Aultagh Celtic in the Championship Cup). He’s been absolutely brilliant. Himself, Conor (Twomey) and Anraoi (Creedon) up front work very well together.’
While the next round will have a slightly different feel, the underdog tag has suited this Ardfield side.
‘In the last two games, we’ve been underdogs because we were playing Dunmanway, who won the Beamish Cup three of the last five years. We had Beara as well. Being an underdog does help a lot,’ Lawless added. ‘Our league form hasn’t been great. At the start of the year, we won one or two games and then we started losing a few games but they have been fairly tight. 2-1, 3-2, 3-1. The cups are a great distraction. We’re in the semi-final of our own cup (the Championship Cup) as well.’
Since the start of December, Ardfield have played seven games and won five, and they want to cause another surprise against in-form Spartak.
