The extraordinary close rivalry between Pembroke Wanderers and Glenanne yielded another joust all the way to the wire in the Leinster Senior Cup semi-final at Serpentine yesterday. But this time, after Glenanne had again recovered from arrears of 2-0 to square it at 2-2, Pembroke at last lay the bogey of four previous defeats to win the shoot-out 4-1.
Although Justin Sherriff smashed home two vintage reverse-stick goals in the early stages, Glenanne - in spite of their exertions in beating Cork Harlequins at all-Ireland level on Saturday - refused to let their heads drop. First, Stephen Butler clinically scored from a short corner to leave it 2-1 at the break and then, seven minutes from the end of normal time, Roly O'Donoghue snapped up the equaliser.
Fine net-minding by deputy goalkeeper Stephen Doran had negated earlier Glenanne raids and in extra-time he foiled David Shaw of what would have been a golden goal. Sherriff also missed such an opportunity in failing with a penalty stroke but in disputing this award, Glenanne had three players yellow-carded. Thus they were depleted for the shoot-out, allowing Pembroke to prevail.
Corinthians were too accomplished for Naas in the earlier semi-final, running out 8-0 winners. Olly Close helped himself to the first five goals, including three in a four-minute second-half blitz.
The first all-Leinster Irish Senior Cup final since the early years of the last century came to fruition on Saturday as Glenanne stamped out the challenge of their Cork visitors Harlequins, 2-1, with YMCA coming through by the same narrow margin against Avoca in the other semi-final.
After an extremely tight first half at St Mark's in which Joe Brennan of Glenanne and Philip Chambers for the visitors epitomised the sharpness of the two defences, the home brigade must have sensed that, to achieve a breakthrough, the most effective method was to charge at the cover rather than have their passes intercepted.
This they did through the rapier thrusts of Graham Shaw and the loping runs of Stephen Butler. When set-piece opportunities started to mount, a long corner led to Shaw setting up John Goulding to whisk the ball out of Wesley Bateman's despairing reach midway through the second period.
The next attack yielded an eighth short corner from which Butler scored with a ground shot to make it 2-0 and although Harlequins responded defiantly for Dave Eakins to reduce the arrears, Glenanne were not going to allow a first appearance in the final slip from their grasp.
Roused by celebrities from the trophy-winning side of 1978-79, YMCA asserted themselves in the second half to edge out the 1996 victors, Avoca, at Ballinteer. Although David Hanna fired the visitors into an interval lead, the YM captain Michael Fry broke free on the left flank to deliver an equaliser by South African striker Sean Southgate and then, with three minutes to spare, Fry put away the decisive goal from a short corner.
