All-Ireland Club Junior Hurling Championship quarter-final: Eogahn Rua (Coleraine) v John Mitchel’s (Britain) (tomorrow, Celtic Park, 1pm)
COLERAINE will attempt to reach their second All-Ireland Junior semi-final in five years when they clash with Birmingham side John Mitchel’s at Celtic Park tomorrow.
The Eoghan Rua side defeated Fullen Gaels 1-11 to 0-6 back in 2015 in a clash in Birmingham. The fact that they only have to make the trip to Derry this time only enhances their favouritism.
Favouritism is something they have been used to this season having instantly been pinned as one the Ulster Junior Championship heavyweights alongside Gort na Mona once the county championships were sewn up.
The Antrim representatives suffered a surprise semi-final loss to Newry Shamrocks but Eoghan Rua had no such issues in the final as they produced a couple of purple patches to win 1-16 to 0-11.
Not for the first time Sean Leo McGoldrick was the hero of the hour as he chipped in with 11 points with four of those coming from play. It was not only the quantity but the quality of his scores that left it easy to pick the star of the show.
This is by no means a one-man team though with the likes of Ruairi Mooney, Ciaran McGoldrick and Tomas Magee, who scored the goal in their 2015 All-Ireland quarter-final, also catching the eye at various stages this season.
Sean Leo McGoldrick racked up 0-23 in their three Ulster games while Ciaran McGoldrick (1-4), Dara Mooney (1-3), Anton Rafferty (0-5) and Liam McGoldrick (0-5) have also made good scoring contributions.
It’s also worth noting that they conceded just 1-27 in those three games, although Mullahoran and a weakened Inniskeen did not provide massive opposition.
John Mitchel’s manager Des Kelly has hailed his side’s battling qualities and they were really on show in their semi-final and final encoutners.
An early Kelvin Magee goal put them in a good place in the first of those but they were left hanging on before advancing to the final courtesy of a 2-16 to 2-14 win over London outfit Fr Murphy’s.
Back-to-back titles looked unlikely in the final as they trailed Fullen Gaels by five points at one stage, but they recovered the situation to win by five points.
Coleraine will take a warning from the performance of the Mitchel’s against Castleblayney at the same stage last year. The Warwickshire men led by four points midway through the second half but were unable to hold on.
This is a fine Eoghan Rua side though and they are unlikely to be in any serious bother.
