Rice College Westport pipped at the final hurdle in bid for All-Ireland glory

2024 FAI SCHOOLS TOM TICHER JUNIOR NATIONAL CUP FINAL

PORTMARNOCK COMMUNITY SCHOOL 1

(Cian Wilson 3 mins)

RICE COLLEGE, WESTPORT 0

Kevin Egan at Athlone Town Stadium

A slow start put Rice College into a hole from which they could never recover in this afternoon’s All-Ireland Junior National Cup Final at Athlone Town Stadium, where the Westport students relinquished the Tom Ticher Cup to Portmarnock Community School.

If possession and territory stats were available from the midlands venue, it’s likely that Rice College would have either broken even or edged proceedings slightly, but in terms of the end product as measured by the quality of chances created, the vanquished Connacht winners can have few complaints.

Cian Wilson’s strike from the edge of the penalty area, struck with incredible precision low and inside Michael McDonnell’s near post after just three minutes, was the decisive score in the contest, and it was no more than Portmarnock deserved based on the opening quarter as a whole. Rice College sat very deep, inviting the North Dublin school onto the attack, and relying on a lot of long ball clearances, hoping that Jack O’Malley would make something happen.

O’Malley did his best but up against a three-man centre back combination, and in particular an excellent man on man defender in Tadi Chikoko, he was up against it. It was only when Rice College started to push forward and play through the middle that they began to create real attacking pressure.

There were slight openings, and a spectacular volley from Rían Durkan was probably the best chance of all, but that effort slammed into the right hand goalpost and crashed to safety.

As the second half progressed, Rice College increased the pressure, they enjoyed more territory, and they had some vital interventions at the back from Darragh Reynolds and Eoghan Moran in particular to keep Portmarnock at bay, not to mention two outstanding saves from McDonnell.

However at the other end of the pitch, a series of hopeful deliveries into the opposition box didn’t yield what Rice College would have hoped, and with the exception of a possible shout for a penalty when Ben Holmes went to ground after contact with goalkeeper Kyle Grainger, waved away by the referee, Portmarnock were able to hold firm and dethrone Rice College as U-17 All-Ireland winners.

 PORTMARNOCK CS: Kyle Grainger; Matthew Reen, Tadi Chikoko, Matthew Goti, Senan Finn, Aaron McGlynn; Alexander Moore, Jack O’Hanlon, Cian Wilson; Jamie Flynn, Seán Jones.

Subs: Seán Lowry for Jones (55), Ben Morris for Moore (73)

RICE COLLEGE: Michael McDonnell; Eoghan Moran, Darragh Reynolds, Tom McGeough, Seán Casey; Jamie O’Malley; Rían Durkan, Killian Conway, Simeon Popov, Ethan McGing; Jack O’Malley.

Subs: Aron Heaney for Popov (52), Ben Holmes for McGing (68)

Referee: Paul Tone.

For a full report, analysis and reaction from this final, be sure to pick up next week’s Mayo News.