POSSIBLY the club's next side to carry off the Irish Senior Cup, the Three Rock Rovers under 21s showed a good deal of their potential in winning the Derek Price Trophy at Serpentine Avenue last night. But they were not allowed an easy passage by their YMCA contemporaries, who pegged back their rivals to 3-2 before Alan Bothwell converted his second penalty stroke to seal Rovers' victory.
Against a defence resolutely marshalled by Quentin Heaney, with notable support from Will Powderly, there was only one Three Rock breakthrough in the first half. This came after 24 minutes when Gary Ringwood sent Christian Judd clear on the right and the winger's centre was tucked away by the accomplished captain, Gordon Elliott.
YMCA responded straight after the interval with Stephen Barry forcing a penalty for Jan Willem Findlater to equalise. However, a succession of Rovers short corners saw Judd whip his side back into the lead from the sixth set-piece.
In the next offensive, Judd earned a penalty for Bothwell to dispatch the ball high into the net, but YMCA managed to counter attack strongly and reduced the margin through Heaney after a sequence of corners. This spurred Three Rock into a final surge to score from another penalty.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)