White’s Cross have qualified for the 2024 City Division championship final following this semi-final victory over Rochestown. We came in to this game following big-margin victories over Rathpeacon and Bishopstown. This game was always going to be different though; not least because we were short a number of players from the previous matches due to them playing at the higher A grade in the interim and also a number of key players were ruled out through injury. And so it played it out like this. The opening ten minutes belonged to Rochestown. They ran at us and camped us in our own-half in this period with midfielder Niall Murphy causing us particular trouble. They duly went two point ahead and had number of other attempts that went short or went wide.
White’s Cross’ first score came in the 11th minute. Superb work from Patrick Harrington set up Edwin Buckley whose goal-bound shot crashed off the bar; the rebound came to Adam Dunne who showed the composure to take the point. It could have been three but at this stage we needed to get on the scoreboard to settle the game down. Immediately from the kick-out Shane Cahill won the ball and we were level. The next ten minutes was evenly contested. We missed another two goal chances while our opponents also had chances. They converted one when they broke onto a ball from a long kick-out. We equalised in the 24th minute when Donncha Murnane kicked the best score of the night; a huge effort from 40 meters. Donncha lead the team all night from center – back and his turnovers and astute passing brought composure to, at times, frantic middle third of the pitch.
The key moment in the first half came in the 28th minute when Brendan Quaine finished with a low powerful shot into the back of the Rochestown net. Once again Patrick Harrington’s running and interplay with Edwin Buckley was key to setting up this score. We lead at half-time on a score of 1-03 to 0-03.
The opening three minutes of the second half brought two incidents involving both goalkeepers that were crucial to the outcome of the match. At one end White’s Cross goalkeeper Murt Kelleher charged out bravely and brought off a superb save to deny Rochestown a certain goal. At the other end, calamity struck for the opposition when Edwin Buckley’s 45 went all the way to the net following a mix-up on the line – this was a 6 point swing in our favour.
Rochestown did not buckle though and they kicked 4 of the next five points from frees. They continued to run at our defence who stood firm in their quest for goals; opting to foul on a few occasions. White’s Cross only score in that period was a goal-bound effort from Shane Cahill tapped over by their keeper who made some amends toward the concession of the second goal. Shane Cahill would eventually get his goal when great work by Ronan Healy set him up and he buried it high to the back of the net to give the keeper no chance. Superb work by James Buckley (who could also have scored a goal earlier) to win a kickout out passed to Shane Cahill who in turn laid it off to Edwin Buckley to finish soccer style on the stretch for his second goal. This put the gloss on a hard-earned 4-06 to 0-09 win. Though we deserved our win, the scoreline flatters a gallant Rochestown win who played their part in a very entertaining game.
LINEUPS
White’s Cross
1 – Murt Kelleher
2 – Ronan Quaine
3 – Dan O’Sullivan
4 – Luke Murphy
5 – Aidan Docherty
6 – Donncha Murnane (0-01)
7 – Cormac Manning
8 – Daniel Kelleher
9 – Patrick Harrington
10 – Shane Cahill (1-02)
11 – Brendan Quaine
12 – Ronan Healy (0-02)
13 – Fionnan Quinlan
14 – Edwin Buckley (2-00, 1 from 45)
15 – Adam Dunne (0-01)
SUBS:
off: Fionnan Quinlan on: James Buckley
off: Adam Dunne on: John McElhinney
Rochestown
- Ryan Feeny
- Dave O’Leary
- Ger Scannell
- Richard Coughlan
- Mark Biggins
- Cian McCarthy
- Anthony McHugh
- Niall Murphy
- Jason Walsh
- Eoin Daly
- Darragh O’Shea
- Barry Kelleher
- David Sheehan
- Paul Hartnett
- Daniel O’Sullivan