Tipperary side St Michael's march on to FAI Junior Cup semi-final after win in Donegal

FAI Junior Cup Quarter-Final

Buncrana Harps 0 – 1 St Michael’s

St Michael’s dug out an FAI Junior Cup quarter-final victory against Buncrana Harps on Sunday in a tense dogged affair with the TSDL side showing good resilience to keep their Donegal opponents out in the last quarter of the game.

It was a tightly contested last eight encounter right from the start, with a wait until the 17th minute before the first chance of note, when the home side’s Kieran McDaid found his namesake John Mc Daid, who headed just over the bar.

The Tipperary visitors went close nine minutes later, when a Jimmy Carr cross was spilled, but by the end of the opening half, there were no goals from either side in a game that was being fiercely contested for every ball.

The away side had the first good opportunity of the second period when Russell went close just three minutes after the restart. And the defining moment of the game came just minutes later, when a Buncrana Harps defender was judged to have handled the ball and Saints skipper Jimmy Carr kept his nerve to beat Rory Kelly from the penalty spot.

Bouncing now, David Slattery went close shortly afterwards, but his effort was turned away for a corner by Rory Kelly.

Despite being behind, the home side were always dangerous with Kieran McDaid on the right wing and Sean Mullan at centre forward going close on a number of occasions.

Saints had a big let-off in the 63rd minute, when Mullan got in behind the defence but when he looked sure to score his effort hit the post, and rolled away to safety, much to the relief of the travelling Tipperary crowd.

The highly decorated visiting defence came into their own in the final quarter, with veteran Paul Breen marshalling things, and though the hosts had a number of half chances late on, it was St Michael’s who held their nerve to book their place in the competition’s semi-finals.