Draws were kind to us last week in our examination of the local junior soccer scene, so punters will understand if we return to the same happy hunting ground in a bid to continue our profitable winter season here in this column. It was league action that we looked at last week but the stakes get even higher over the next few days as the glistening prize that is the FAI Junior Cup is the title on the line for most of the leading sides in the local area.
Admittedly there is a long way still to go in this competition – as Fr Ted might say to Fr Dougal in explanation, the prize is big, but far away. However there’s nothing like a cup run to energise a local side and for clubs like Fairview Rangers and Moyross United, who are starting to slip too far behind in the league to really have much of a hope of mounting any meaningful challenge on that front, it becomes all the more important to go deep into either this competition or the Munster Junior Cup, which will resume after Christmas with some fourth round ties.
Moyross are 8/13 to beat Cobh at home and while their Cork visitors will travel with a famous name, their first string team plies their trade at Intermediate level in the Munster Senior League. The group that will come to Limerick on Sunday have really exceeded expectations to come through four rounds of junior competition with what is effectively their reserve side. They’ve scored well this year in what is a very ordinary AUL Division Two but defensively they should be found out by Moyross this week. United might concede a goal or two here, but they will almost certainly previal.
Regional United have a slightly trickier tie against Broadford United of the Desmond League and while the Limerick sides are usually that bit too strong for their Desmond counterparts when they meet in competitions like this, we’d stop short of taking the 4/7 here. Regional were desperately poor against Summerville last week and until they find some form, backing them is the equivalent of buying Irish bank shares when they were on the way down. No matter what people think, there’s always room for matters to get much worse.
Pike Rovers should be far too strong for Ballyhaunis but at odds of 1/10 with Paddy Power, nobody will get rich backing that one. Carew Park make slightly more appeal at 4/6 for their away fixture against City United of Sligo, but here too we’d tread warily. City United and Boyle Celtic are utterly dominant in their local league and while the general standard in that part of the world is quite poor, clubs like that live for these occasions and gear their preparations weeks in advance. Think of Barcelona travelling to Celtic Park in the Champions League group stages; for one side it’s the highlight of the season, for the other it’s an annoyingly distant away venue against an unknown quantity, immediately after a tough league encounter.
Take 5/2 about the draw in Sligo instead.
Odds given are for Paddy Power Retail outlets. Piece written by Kevin Egan.
