The Junior A Footballers had reached the quarter finals of their A Championship before the annual break was taken for the hurling championship. At this point in the 2005 campaign the team has had championship successes over Passage and Bishoprtown and a drawn encounter with Rathpeacon. The replay with our near-neighbours took place at Ballinlough, where a large crowd turned up to watch this derby fixture. As in the drawn game Rathpeacon were quicker to settle and tacked on a couple of early scores. However John Drummy and Murt Kelleher got a grip of midfield and Conor Buckley and Conor Kelleher got a couple of White’s Cross scores. At half-time we trailed on a score of 0-4 to 0-3, as both sides seemed somewhat stifled by the occasion.
However a penalty, excellently converted by Donnacha Murnane, after Joathan Kenneally was fouled to prevent a definite goal, settled our lads early in the second. Rick Burke tacked on a couple of fine points. Also man-of-the-match Donal Kelly wandered forward from his wing-back position to score three fine points. Edwin Buckley ensured a Cross victory with an expertly converted goal. In the semi-final White’s Cross meet St. Michaels while in the other semi-final Na Piarsaigh play St. Finbarrs. The final for this competition is scheduled for September 4th.
The team lined out as follows against Rathpeacon in the reply: B Sheehan, J O Connell, P Finnegan, S O Gorman, D Kelly(0-3), E Murnane, B O Brien, M Kelleher, J Drummy, C Buckley(0-3), K Buckley, E Buckley(1-1), J Kenneally, C Kelleher(0-1), D Murnane(1-0) Subs: R Burke(0-2) for K Buckley, S Murnane for J Kenneally, B O Sullivan for J Drummy, D Kenneally for E Buckley