*Brian O’Connor of Regional Utd. Photograph: Joe Buckley
WHATEVER THE OUTCOME of Saturday’s Munster Junior Cup final, there will be provincial medals heading back to Co Clare.
Of course Newmarket Celtic are flying the county flag and will endeavour to claim a historic double of FAI and Munster Junior Cup titles.
Within the ranks of their opponents, Dooradoyle based Regional Utd are four Clare natives who themselves are vying for glory.
Newmarket-on-Fergus native Rob Shier is one of them. The goalkeeper was arguably man of the match when the sides clashed in the FAI Junior Cup in February, Darragh Leahy’s extra time goal proving to be the difference in their last sixteen clash.
Shier’s availability in recent weeks has led to management opting for a different approach between the posts, something Newmarket will take some momentum from. Rob’s father Philip was part of the Celtic management team alongside Paudie Cullinan that were crowned Premier Division champions in 2008, ending a drought of thirteen years. His brother in law, Kevin Harnett is likely to have a midfield berth for the FAI Junior Cup champions.
Another man lining out with Regional Utd with strong links to Newmarket-on-Fergus is striker Eoin Duff. The Shannon native’s mother Sinead hails from Newmarket and his grand-parents Dominic and Francis formerly ran Lemenagh Foodstore. During his time with Fairview Rangers, Eoin won FAI and Munster Junior Cup medals. He joined Fairview at the beginning of this season and he with thirty goals to his name is currently the top scorer in the Limerick Premier Division.
Fellow Shannon man Brian O’Connor is also in his first season with the Limerick club. A primary school teacher at St Conaire’s NS, O’Connor moved to Regional Utd after five years with Shannon Town Utd, lining out on the same team as Jack Kelly who he now faces off with this weekend. The skilful midfielder previously had lined out Bridge Utd and Fairview Utd at schoolboys level before progressing to Mervue Utd.
Sixmilebridge’s Filip Mostowy is expected to start on the left wing for Regional. The Polish attacking midfielder has League of Ireland experience, he joined Galway Utd in 2019 playing with their U17s and U19s and prior to this was representing Limerick FC at U15 and U17 level.
Notably all four are past pupils of St Caimin’s Community School in Shannon along with the majority of the Newmarket Celtic squad.
En route to the final, Duff has hit the net on twelve occasions with Mostowy getting his only goal in the semi-final win over Ballynanty while O’Connor was among the scorers in their fourth round win over Blarney. They have beaten Pike Rovers B, Athlunkard, Janesboro, Blarney, Villa fc, Avondale and Ballynanty in their seven games in the competition.
Newmarket Celtic have overcome the challenges of Shannon Hibs B, Fair Green Celtic, Avenue Utd A, Killavilla, Shannon Town A, Ferrybank AFC and Fairview to reach the provincial final for the third time in their history.
