Regional's win brings Munster Junior Cup medals back to Clare

by Páraic McMahon paraic@clareecho.ie

NEWMARKET CELTIC may have been flying the county flag in the Munster Junior Cup but it was a quartet for Regional Utd that brought provincial medals back to Clare.

Paddy Purcell’s Newmarket side came up just short in their bid to record a historic double of FAI and Munster Junior Cup titles losing out on a penalty shootout. Within the ranks of their opponents, Dooradoyle based Regional Utd were four Clare natives.

Shannon native, Brian O’Connor has had a first season to remember with the Limerick club. A primary school teacher at St Conaire’s NS, O’Connor moved to Regional Utd after five years with Shannon Town Utd, lining out on the same team as Jack Kelly who he faced off with on Saturday.

A skilful midfielder, BOC had lined out Bridge Utd and Fairview Utd at schoolboys level before progressing to Mervue Utd. He started on the right wing for Sean Russell’s side.

Sixmilebridge’s Filip Mostowy started up front for Regional. The Polish attacking midfielder has League of Ireland experience, he joined Galway Utd in 2019 play ing with their U17s and U19s and prior to this was representing Lim erick FC at U15 and U17 level. He re- ceived plenty of attention from the Newmarket crowd in Jackman Park but looked lively throughout the contest.

Eoin Duff was a surprise omission from Regional’s starting eleven. Currently, the top scorer in the Limerick Premier Division, Duff was sprung from the bench before the final whistle in normal time and scored one of the four penalties to secure a first ever provincial title for the club.

Duff who hails from Shannon already has Munster and FAI Junior Cup medals from his time with Fairview Rangers. He has strong links to Newmarket-on-Fergus, his mother Sinead hails from Newmarket and his grand-parents Dominic and Francis formerly ran Lemenagh Foodstore.

Newmarket-on-Fergus native Rob Shier also collected his first Munster Junior Cup medal with Regional’s breakthrough. The goalkeeper was arguably man of the match when the sides clashed in the FAI Junior Cup in February, Darragh Leahy’s extra time goal proving to be the difference in their last sixteen clash. However his availability in recent weeks led to management opting for Peter Healy between the posts.

Rob’s father Philip was part of the Celtic management team alongside Paudie Cullinan that were crowned Pre-