From The Avondhu – 16/12/2022
White’s Cross junior B footballers won an adult football title for the club for the first time in 7 years by claiming the City Division junior B football league in August 2021. This was only the second time that the club had won this competition. The only other occasion was in 1992 when Stephen Turpin captained the side to victory. On that occasion, it was the club’s first team that took the title while this year it was our second football side. However, as we are approaching 30 years since that victory, we will look back on some of the highlights of that year’s success before reviewing this year’s victory in our next notes.
Without any public health emergencies to contend with and a relatively dry winter (and possibly a more Laissez-faire attitude to pitch maintenance) meant that a full programme of City Division football games started in the first week of February and continued unabated for the following seven weeks. For White’s Cross footballers, the opening league game was in the Tank Field against Brian Dillons where they came away with a five point victory on a 0-09 to 0-04 scoreline. We welcomed Dillons’ arch-rivals Mayfield to our pitch the following week. This proved to be a surprisingly comfortable victory with a 14-point difference between the sides at the final whistle. Their third game of the campaign was away to Bishopstown. This was a tight low-scoring game. Though on top, they struggled to put away The ‘Town who played most of the game with only 14 players. With time almost up the sides were level with the scoreboard reading 0-06 to 1-03 when referee John Linehan awarded White’s Cross a penalty. Martin Atkinson had the responsibility placed on his shoulders and he decided, sensibly, knowing that time was almost up, to kick the ball over the bar. This was enough to secure the victory and collect another brace of league points.
The next few weeks saw three more consecutive victories over Ballyphehane, Ballinure and Fr O’Callaghans. The 2 league points were secured in each game by a three-point winning margin. The seventh game in seven weeks came against Passage West. At that this time in the early 90s, both of these clubs had quite the rivalry. On this occasion though thanks to strong performances from John’O Sullivan, Anthony Kelleher and Vivian O’Callaghan, White’s Cross won out on 0-12 to 1-01 final score against Passage. After an intense start to the year, the club was on top of the pile, having won seven consecutive games in as many weeks.
They would not have known it at the time, but these victories would be enough for them to reach the semi-final stage. Most of the players were dual players and having won the Junior B Hurling championship in 1991, the club’s hurlers were playing at a higher level. With long evenings approaching and with the sod drying, the small-ball code pretty much took over for the summer. There was championship football of course but it was mostly a hurling-summer. We had a memorable championship victory over Mayfield in our first ever A grade hurling championship in the City Division, we were top of the Division 2 hurling league and we won the McCurtain Cup. That year’s hurling success has been covered previously in The Avondhu. However, the point here is that a combination of that hurling success, walkovers received and some games being scratched by the board meant that the victory over Passage in Mid March was the last game in the Junior B Football league until November the 1st ; a semi-final match against Bishopstown.
A lack of goals in their previous encounter against this opposition lead to a nervous finish. In this particular semi-final tie, however, two early goals from Colm Twohig and Val Cashman put White’s Cross into a lead that they would never relinquish. Bishopstown got a goal early in the second half but with Niall Cashman lording the crucial battles i lár na bpáirce, the ‘Town were never in a position to create the platform in mid-field to mount a serious comeback. White’s Cross qualified for the final by virtue of a 3-05 to 2-01 victory.
The final was played three weeks later on November 22nd ; almost a full 10 months on from the opening match against Brian Dillons. Ballyphehane provided the opposition on a day that was better suited to being spent indoors. As in the semi-final game, White’s Cross started quickly and established an early lead. Ballyphehane to their credit stayed in the game and the trend, for White’s Cross, of conceding an early second half of goal continued which gave Ballyphehane real hope. However, Val Cashman also brought his goal-scoring form into the final and his major quickly cancelled out the ‘Hane effort. Niall Maloney should have ended the contest shortly after but his shot rattled the crossbar and away to safety. The same player would knock over a few nice points and was assisted by other forwards in scoring form such as Billy Twomey and Conor Kelleher. Ballyphehane had a player sent off mid-way through the second half and with young defenders Con and Martin Kelleher giving away nothing at the other end, White’s Cross ran out comfortable 3-10 to 2-03 winners. The City Board secretary Donal O’Connor presented the trophy to a jubilant White’s Cross captain Stephen Turpin at the final whistle to bring down the curtain on a successful year.
The side were coached by Paul O’Neill while the various selectors were Liam O’Keeffe, Anthony Crowley (RIP), Dermot Whooley (RIP) Tim Sheehan (RIP) and Donal Fitzgerald.