St. Pat’s Capture Moynihan Cup in 1997

St. Pat's 1997BOne of the most pleasant, if time devouring, duties I undertake on behalf of the health and well-being of The Maine Valley Post is rooting back through my picture or negative files. The feed-back is always positive and laced with words of encouragement to root away.

Our, just christened, ‘Friday Favourite’ slot this week features a trip back to December 1997 and the St. Patrick’s College Gaelic Football team which won the Moynihan Cup then. The following is a report on the game from the Castleisland page of The Kingdom Newspaper of December 15th 1997.

“The senior footballers from St. Patrick’s College covered themselves and their school in glory recently when they captured The Moynihan Cup with a hard earned win over Moyderwell of Tralee.

The Castleisland side, captained by Kerry minor star, Kevin Lynch, trailed by two points after a disappointing first half – during which neither side played to its full potential – and they ran in at four points to two.

Both sides had glaring chances to take control of the game early on and they also shared the blame for many squandered scoring chances.

From the throw-in for the second half the Tralee side exerted a sustained period of pressure on the Castleisland backs. However, they stood firm and soaked it up until Kevin Lynch posted the way out with three great points on the trot.

Only minutes later, the break – for which the embattled Islanders had  hoped – appeared in the shape of a great goal by Daniel Walsh. Both sides swapped points before Daniel Shanahan targeted, and found the net with a magnificent long range shot.

The game was fiercely contested from there on and the Tralee lads managed to tag a goal to their tally – but it was too late and The Moynihan Cup was on its way to Castleisland to leave the score line: St. Patrick’s 2-09 Moyderwell 1-06.”