Keith Kelly

St Mary’s College will be looking to keep the FAI Senior Schools Cup in Galway for another year when they travel to Flancare Park in Longford on Thursday to take on Salesian College Celbridge (kick-off 1pm) in this year’s decider.

St Joseph’s College (the Bish) won the title last year, and St Mary’s are expecting to bring a large travelling support to the Midlands for the school’s fourth appearance in the FAI Cup final, where they will be looking to maintain their 100% record in the decider, having lifted the Cup in 1988, 2001 and 2006.

The city side will go into the final as favourites, but manager Paul Concannon watched Salesians beat Cardonagh of Donegal in extra-time in their semi-final in Monaghan on Friday, and is expecting a tough battle.

“They looked very good, they were solid and worked hard and we certainly won’t have it easy against them. For some strange reason, the game in Monaghan was played on an astro-turf pitch, so that made it difficult, but I thought they did well, they look strong and it should be a good game,” Concannon told Sentinel Sport yesterday.
 

St Mary’s have cut a swath through the opposition on their march to the final, scoring a staggering 29 goals in their seven games to date, with the only real test coming against Presentation Athenry in the Connacht semi-final, with penalties needed to separate the sides after they finished 1-1 after extra time.

The partnership of Tony Ward and Shane Maughan up front has caused havoc for many a defence, with both chipping in with a goal apiece in the 4-1 demolition of Marist Athlone in the Connacht final, and Ward got on the scoresheet again last Monday in the national semi-final win over Scoil Mhuire Cobh.

Mary’s struggled to find their groove in that Connacht final win, but a three-goal salvo in the space of 13 second-half minutes effectively ended the game as a contest, and they were more composed against Scoil Mhuire last Monday.

Sean Glynn, who was sent-off in the Connacht final, returns from suspension having missed last Monday’s game, but Concannon is sweating on the fitness of Schoolboy international Rory Gartlan, who picked up a knee injury in the game with Athenry, and time looks like being against him.

“We are on a good run, and the amazing thing is that in the seven games we have played, we have only had a full squad to choose from once, but that shows the strength of the whole squad, and it will be very difficult to pick a team for Thursday,” Concannon said.

He has already had to make one difficult decision this week – the school’s U16 side played the Bish in the Connacht semi-final yesterday, and a couple of his players are also members of that squad. He and U16 manager Martin Horgan decided that the FAI Cup final had to take priority, and those dual grade players were withdrawn from yesterday’s squad, with the result that an understrength St Mary’s side lost 3-1.

“We looked to get the U16 game moved but we couldn’t, so we had to make the difficult decision to withdraw the players as the senior squad in the FAI Cup final takes priority. Obviously we would have preferred avoiding having to make that decision, but that wasn’t possible,” Concannon said.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.