Ed O'Dwyer header seals another Tipperary Cup success for St Michael's

TIPPERARY CUP FINAL

CLONMEL CELTIC 0 ST MICHAEL'S 1

They came, they saw and they conquered at Cahir Park on a sunny Saturday evening, as St Michael’s retained their Tipperary Cup title once again, beating Clonmel opposition.

Last year it was the Old Bridge who fell to the Saints at the final hurdle, while this year’s edition saw Clonmel Celtic put to the sword.

But the losing side didn’t make it easy, and are a testament to the strength of football in the TSDL, with how hard they pushed the newly-crowned league champions on the night. In fact, in front of a huge crowd at Cahir Park, it was the Clonmel side who started the better, flashing the ball around at pace, and dragging the normally composed St Michael’s defence this way and that on a number of occasions.

The first real chance of the game came six minutes in, when Celtic fashioned a good move down the right hand side and a ball was flashed across the penalty area, with the in-rushing Sean Brown only inches away from making the contact that would have put his side in front.

Five minutes later, in a very similar move, but this time down the opposite side, another ball across the area eluded both Julian Kerton and Philip Drohan, and the game remained scoreless.

And as so often happens, when a team in the ascendency against St Michael’s do not take advantage, they are made to pay. In the 16th minute, veteran winger Jimmy Carr showed his full range of skills when he cut inside from the left and placed a brilliant cross onto the head of Ed O’Dwyer who made no mistake from close in and put the holders in front.

After this St Michael’s had a number of close efforts as they attempted to kill the game off quickly, but Clonmel Celtic composed themselves and the two teams played out a dour midfield struggle for the rest of the half, with St Michael’s going into the break still leading by the solitary goal.

The second half then followed a similar pattern as the concluding part of the first, with Saints having the better of the midfield battle, but finding it difficult to make progress, in many cases due to the excellent work of Celtic’s Kevin Hawkins, who was universally regarded as having a brilliant game by both sets of supporters.

Clonmel Celtic finally looked to have found a leveller midway through the half, when St Michael’s keeper Adrian Walsh uncharacteristically dropped a shot at the feet of Sean Brown, but he showed all his years of experience in getting a foot on it to make a block from Brown’s close-in effort.

This nearly-goal shook St Michael’s into getting back to trying to get a second for themselves to make things more comfortable, and they almost did with 15 minutes left to go, when Rhys O’Regan dinked an effort from the edge of the area, that saw Fabian Kerton back pedal and tip over the crossbar, for a brilliant save.

Just minutes after this, Saints were reduced to ten men, when one of their players picked up a second yellow, and Celtic committed more players to try to find a leveller. The closest they came was when Rory O’Dowd found himself in space on the left, cut in, and forced Walsh to make a save, and the chance was lost.

After that, the Tipperary Town outfit showed why they are serial winners and they closed down the game to run out champions and pick up their third piece of silverware in what has been another very successful season for them.