Man of the match display for Ennis' O'Callaghan in Connacht Junior Cup win

by Páraic McMahon news@clareecho.ie

ENNIS’ Sean O’Callaghan gave a man of the match display while collecting his first Connacht Junior Cup medal over the weekend.

Centre-half Sean was part of the Athenry Utd side to win the Connacht Junior Cup for the first time since 2016.

It took penalties for the Galway outfit to defeat the roll of honour leaders Castlebar Celtic, the tie finished 0-0 after normal and extra time but Athenry prevailed 5-4 when it came to the shootout.

Penalties were dispatched by Shane Keogh, Cole Connolly, Dan Cunningham, Simon Dziedzina and Colm O’Donovan while goalkeeper, TJ Forde made a crucial save from Castlebar’s third spot kick.

While it is the sixth time Athenry have won the provincial title, it is the first time twen- l Sean with his proud parents, John and Geraldine ty nine year old Sean has got his hands on a Connacht medal. He has formerly lined out for Pike Rovers, Ennis Town FC and Avenue Utd before making the move to Athenry. from long-range with efforts from Conor Coughlan and Wayne Colbert the closest Rangers came to opening the deadlock in the opening half.

Within the Galway Premier Division, Athenry have finished runners up to Salthill Devon over the past two seasons, they last won the league title in 2021.

Walsh O’Loghlen had an opportunity to getting off the mark on the restart, after an impressive run his shot was blocked by Shane Tracey and the game eventually petered out to a 0-0 draw.

An ankle injury has kept Pike captain McGann out of action for the past three weeks and he will remain sidelined into the pre-season. He scored five goals in his fourteen appearances in the League. In his absence, Pat Mullins accepted the Fran Mullally Trophy from Pat Dillon of the Limerick District League.

League success was greatly aided by the showing of winger Walsh O’Loghlen in their midweek 3-2 win over Munster Junior Cup champions, Regional Utd. He scored two exceptional goals to steer them to victory which ensured that the draw against Fairview was enough to be crowned champions.

Both of the Ennis men previously lined out for Limerick FC before settling at Pike Rovers where they have won back to back League titles, the first of which was won after an eight year gap.

Completing the Clare involvement with Pike Rovers is Ennis based physical therapist John Earls who is also part of the backroom team with the Newmarket-on-Fergus senior hurlers and the St Breckan’s senior footballers having previously been involved with Clare’s Oscar Traynor winning sides.