SCHOOLS HOCKEY LEINSTER BOYS' SENIOR CUP/St Andrews 1 Wesley College 0:DAVID WATKINS showed nerves of steel to seal the Leinster Schoolboys' Senior Cup title at Grange Road yesterday to end Wesley's five-year grip on the competition.
He calmly flicked over the prone goalkeeper Rob Fitzgerald from an acute angle with eight minutes left on the clock to cause a major upset over the recently-crowned league champions and All-Ireland schools title holders.
But they were more than good value for the win, enjoying much more of the play down the final stretch while goalkeeper Stephen West only needed to make one safe of note throughout a gritty battle.
Richard Sykes and David Cole were the rocks at the back, while the combative Jake Beirne tussled manfully in the face of the powerful Conor Motyer.
The latter pair would both later spend time in the sin bin for diving tackles as did Wesley’s Luke Chadwick and Andrew’s Geoff Garrett as the midfield battle heated up.
Chances, though, were scarce. St Andrew’s had a Sykes’ drag-flick chalked off on the stroke of half-time while Wesley fluffed two corners of their own.
Watkins snapped up the one which mattered, though, latching on to Stephen Nolan’s inside pass to roof a priceless winner.
ST ANDREW’S: S West (capt), M Cronin, A Gaw, R Sykes, F Maher, R Anderson, J Beirne, M Styles, S O’Halloran, D Cole, S Nolan, J Donnellan, G Garrett, S Spence, D Watkins, C Stephens
WESLEY: R Fitzgerald, C Quinn, R Burke, D McCrea, P English, N Megarity, S Doherty, T Samuel, C Motyer (capt), L Chadwick, K Shimmins, S Madeley, A White, J Lewis, A Malcolm, D Sturley, A Roberts, S Margetson
Umpires: Kieran Bolger, Andrew Groves.
Minor Final: Wesley College 6 (Ruan McGuinness 2, James O’Donovan, Ross Shaw, Taylor Sutton, Luke Madeley) Newpark 1 (Johnny McCormack).
Wesley claimed their third Minor Cup in four years as they had too much firepower for a game Newpark side, making their first final appearance in over a decade.
