On this Saturday coming our Junior ‘B’ football team contest the East Cork Championship Final in Glenville. This is the club’s second team in adult football and it’s a great achievement to get to the Divisional Final.
We were drawn to play Cloyne in the first round of this championship but this fixture was never played. The game was fixed in the month of June but we got a walkover. This put us into the quarter final. Our opponents here were Glenville. Having been behind for most of the game we staged a great recovery in the last few minutes to win by 2 points.
Next up was a semi final meeting with Glenbower Rovers under lights in Carrigtwohill. After a low scoring game the contest ended all square and went to two periods of extra time. A John O’Dowd goal was the clinching score and we went on to win by two points.
This victory qualified us for our first Junior ‘B’ final since 1993. That year we completed a ‘B’ grade double. The football team, led by John Joe Barry, defeated Glanmire in the final, which was also played in Glenville. That was our second Junior ‘B’ football title, the first coming in 1981 when Tom Kearney led his team to victory over Youghal. We lost a Junior ‘B’ final to Aghada a few years later.
Our team for next Saturday’s decider is a mixture of youth and experience. Our opponents are Carrignavar who have already defeated us in the ‘A’ grade junior football championship semi final, a game which ‘doubled up’ as the 2008 junior football league Division 1 final. Carrig were defeated by Cloyne in the ‘A’ grade final but have a very strong panel for the final. They’ve captured at ‘A’ level in U-16, Minor and U-21 with a few seasons so their players are not short of experience. They will, as always, be a very hard team to beat. We certainly need to increase our scoring return in order to win. Go for it lads, ‘twould be great to bring the Junior ‘B’ grade trophy back to Bride Rovers for the third time.
The game is fixed for Glenville at 2.30pm.
