Avenue defeated in Youths Cup final

Waterford Bohemians 3   Avenue United 0

AVENUE United’s dream of becoming the first Clare club to capture the Munster Youths title ended at sun-splashed Ozier Park in Waterford on Sunday, when the home side deservedly took the honours.
Waterford Bohemians justified favouritism with a superb performance and while a 3-0 scoreline might be a little flattering to them, they were deserved winners of a title they last held in the 1995/’96 season.
Beaten finalists last year, the experience they had gained stood to them this time around and next week they will try to move a step closer to another title when they play in the National Youths Cup semi-final.
They settled quicker and caused a lot of problems for the visitors’ defence in the opening quarter. Such was the extent of the pressure they applied that the Avenue defence was stretched on a few occasions before the opening goal came in the eighth minute from Niall McCabe.
With McCabe and, in particular, Mark O’Keeffe causing problems, they continued to pile on the pressure and Nathan Murray came to his side’s rescue with a couple of good saves.
An indication of the winners’ dominance in the first half is reflected in the stats, which show they won four corners while Avenue didn’t manage any. As the first half wore on, Avenue came more into the game and Darragh Kerins, Cian Burke and Sean Corry all came close before the half-time whistle.
The visitors started the second half brightly and Kerins came close with a header from a Conor O’Brien cross two minutes after the resumption of play. Just when it looked like Avenue would get back into contention, Bohemian’s got a second goal and it’s a score that Avenue won’t be keen to review.
A long-range free kick from Mark McManus was won out on the left wing by Niall Daly. The ball looked to be heading out for a goal kick but Daly didn’t give up and his low cross was finished to an empty net by O’Keeffe. It was a huge blow to the Clare side’s hopes and while they battled on, they never really recovered from the score.
Avenue made a double substitution when Donal O Halloran replaced O’Brien and Michael Gallagher replaced Burke. Bohemian’s went close again on 67 minutes when Dessie Hutchinson missed after getting on the end of a good cross by McCabe.
With 10 minutes remaining, Avenue had a great chance but O’Halloran’s shot following a Kerins cross was turned onto the crossbar and out for a corner. With the game in injury time, Bohemians broke up the field and O’Keeffe scoring a great individual goal to seal a great day for the Waterford club.
Paddy O’Malley worked tirelessly at full-back and later at midfield for the Ennis side. Cian Darcy, Eanna Fennell and Darragh Kerins were others to impress but the day belonged to Waterford.

Waterford Bohemians: Adam Carroll, Conor Gannon, Emmet Carroll, Mark McManus, Killian Cantwell, Niall Daly, Dessie Hutchinson, Conor McCardle, Niall McCabe, Mark O’Keeffe, Jack Maher.
Subs: David Tyrell for Carroll and Jack Hale for Maher.
Avenue United: Nathan Murray, Dean D’Auria, Paddy O’Malley,  Kaylon O’Loughlin, Cian Darcy, Eanna Fennell, Sean Corry, Conor O’Brien, Darragh Kerins, Nicky Twumasai, Cian Burke.
Subs: Donal O Halloran for O’Brien and Michael Gallagher for Burke.
Referee: Pat Murphy; linesmen: David Keeler and Trevor Cotter; fourth official: Alan O’Connell (all Cork).