IT’S a day that has been etched in the minds of those who were there to witness one of the greatest victories in Newcestown’s long and tenured history. A robbery so improbable, a triumph so unique, you’d struggle to sell the script to even the most idealistic-thinking Hollywood director.
Rewind back to the county intermediate football semi-final clash of 2001 between Newcestown and Newmarket, a game that was dominated by the Duhallow side right up until the dying embers of the contest.
Newcestown trailed by seven points with the clock almost in the red, but incredibly reeled off three goals in the final minutes to snatch a victory that helped propel the team to the top table of Cork football.
Now, 22 years on, the two clubs meet on Saturday in the Bon Secours Senior A FC semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh (3pm).
It’s no surprise that Newcestown football manager Tim Buckley wishes for a similar outcome to that fateful day in the early noughties.
‘I’ll never forget it, we beat them in the county semi-final in the old intermediate grade which would be the equivalent of the second tier today, and we then went on to win the county final the following week so hopefully the same result comes our way this weekend,’ Buckley said.
Newcestown manager Tim Buckley.
Last weekend Newcestown continued their terrific season, defeating Carrigtwohill to reach a senior A hurling county final. Now their footballers will look to emulate that success and keep the Newcestown train rolling.
‘See, this is the beauty of it, especially with dual clubs, it’s very very hard, you’d like to have a break from it but you can’t beat winning. It’s our tenth game in 11 weeks and we have the same panel of players for both. We’ve just had a great run up to now,’ Buckley said.
The system Newcestown has in place to juggle the two codes is straightforward and it works well for both.
‘It’s simple enough – if it’s a football weekend, we train Tuesday and Thursday and if it’s the hurling equivalent the same applies. One of the management liaises with both codes to discuss any injuries or issues but it’s fairly straightforward really. We’ve our own house to mind and so do they and nobody is interfering with either so it’s great,’ the Newcestown boss explained.
The footballers reached this stage of the competition after defeating a fancied Kanturk side in the quarter-final via a penalty shootout. Buckley found out a lot about the mentality of his team in that battle.
‘The Kanturk game was a huge win for us. That showed the steel in our players. We were down four points at one stage and the conditions were atrocious, so to come back, draw the game and then to win on penalties showed tons of character. A lot of our squad are only playing their first or second year with the big boys, so to come out the right side of that was a huge boost.’
Speaking of the penalties, Buckley couldn’t have been too confident when it reached that conclusion after what he had witnessed in training.
‘They are a lottery, to be honest. I watched them practiSing one night in training and I turned to my selectors and said, “Jesus lads, I hope this doesn’t go to penalties” because it was dire stuff altogether!’ he jokes.
Buckley explained how he let the players take ownership of who wanted the responsibility of the spot kicks.
‘It was purely left up to the players. Five lads put up their hands and that was that. Probably our man of the match that day was Christopher White in goal and he had his hand up too to take a penalty, he fancied himself at both sides of the posts but he was overruled by the players,’ Buckley laughed. ‘But the comraderie even at a tense time like that, the lads were just able to banter away which nearly helped take the pressure off.’
In injury news, Newcestown will be without their centre-back Colm O’Donovan for this weekend’s clash.
‘Colm O’Donovan is out for the year. He broke one ankle last year and unfortunately, he broke the other one a couple of weeks ago. Sean O’Donovan is coming back from a hamstring injury. He won’t make it this weekend but he’ll definitely be back for the hurling and hopefully a county football final,’ he added.
This weekend’s semi-final has all the makings of another classic. A win would put the senior county double within touching distance. The potential fairy-tale season is still on the cards for Newcestown and this time Hollywood is on notice.
