West United and Ballinasloe Town square up in Cup final

FOUR Galway clubs will contest the Connacht Junior Cup and Shield finals at Eamonn Deacy Park on Sunday.

On a weekend that will bring a finale to the local and provincial action, West United and Ballinasloe Town go head to head in the main event at 3.30pm, while the Shield decider will see East United and Cois Farraige chase honours at 12 noon.

For the Connacht Junior Cup finalists, the contrast could not be greater, as Roscommon League side Ballinasloe Town are regular contenders at the closing stages of the competition and indeed were beaten finalist last season. In contrast, West United are back in their first final since 2010 when they surprisingly lost to Castlerea Celtic, while their last win in the competition was way back in 1982.

Now after spending a number of years in the First Division, Rodney Grant’s charges were promoted last season and they enjoyed a good return to the Premier League with a third place finish.

Competitive, battle hardened and resilient could be some of the words used to describe the City side and they displayed all those qualities to come from two down in the semi final at home against Boyle Celtic to win it by 3-2 in extra time. After Jay McPhilbin started the comeback in the closing minutes, it always looked like there was only going to be one winner thereafter and a Geoffrey Power brace sealed a magnificent recovery and booked a final place.

Now there is not much of a youth policy in the West structure, as seasoned campaigners like Jimmy Jennings, Alan Murphy and Power bring experience and guile to a side that can mix a game any way they want. However, the younger legs of the likes of Conor Murray, Keith Lee, Shane Keogh, Eric Holland and Barry McEntee bring a balance to their ranks.

Ballinasloe Town also left it very late to secure a final place as substitute Liam Lynch headed home an extra time winner in a 1-0 success over St Bernard’s in Abbeyknockmoy. A little like their final opponents, Henry Loughnane’s side are seasoned campaigners at grinding out results.

They were recently piped to the Roscommon Premier League title by a point as Ballymoe claimed the title. Having won the Connacht Cup for the first time in 2004, they have been regular challengers since and added further titles in 2013 and 2014. In fact, that have an amazing record of getting to the latter stages of the competition almost every year.

Joe Woods, Des Hope, Liam Lynch, Mark and Shane Duffy are some of the players hoping to guide the club to a fourth title on Sunday.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.