HOCKEY/Leinster Schoolboys' Senior Cup final, Wesley College 3 St Andrew's College 2: Wesley College held on to their Leinster Senior Cup yesterday after an evenly-matched game against St Andrew's College at Grange Road.

The 3-2 win gave Wesley their third senior success in four years and denied St Andrew's a school double on the day. Their under-14 team carried off the minor trophy by beating Sutton Park 2-0 in the earlier game.

But it was the seniors who provided the most goals, the first of which fell to St Andrew's after a blazing opening. After four minutes, Pembroke regular Alan Sothern had rounded Wesley goalkeeper Iain Walker, only to find himself being grounded.

The umpire had little hesitation in awarding the penalty, which Sothern converted hard and low.

It didn't take Wesley long to find their stride, and on 15 minutes the first of Chris Pelow's two goals arrived. Essentially it came against the run of play, but the drag flick on his side's first corner went low, hard and - importantly - unread into the corner to level the match.

Wesley then opened out and St Andrew's found themselves back-pedalling. Tim Hill had just the St Andrew's goalkeeper, Philip Ryan, to beat from the penalty spot but, Ryan made himself large and blocked the flick. But on 28 minutes Pelow had no such problems, and on Wesley's second corner he again clinically dispatched the ball, this time high into the roof of the net for 2-1.

Five minutes later Wesley again earned their reward for attacking play, this time Henry Micks driving a reverse stick strike past Ryan's ears and high into the goal following skilful approach work from captain Mich Darling.

It took St Andrew's most of the second half to really put the squeeze on Wesley as they chased the match. Sothern finally nailed a beauty of a reverse stick drive on 59 minutes for 3-2, before a final phase of desperate defending from Wesley as St Andrew's sought the equaliser.

Diddy Cole and Trevor Watkins were father figures at the minor final watching their sons, Stephen Cole and David Watkins, achieve what they had done some years before. In the Watkins household the St Andrew's win bridged a 42-year gap from 1964.

But the celebrations had to wait until the dying minutes of the match when Shane O'Halloran's hard, low shot from the crown of the circle put St Andrew's ahead 1-0 and David Carr's high flick sealed the win.

WESLEY COLLEGE: I Walker, R Moyter, R Scanlon, S Furlong, D Scully, S Brownlow, S O'Donnell, C Pelow, T Hill, D Robinson, J McGann, H Micks, M Darling (capt), G McCrave, C Shannon, R Gribben

ST ANDREW'S COLLEGE: P Ryan, N Dee, S Garrett, D Campion, G Lenehan, S Nolan, J Kirwan, R Mason, S Lowrie, G O'Halloran, J Bourke, A Ward, R Wyse, A Sothern (capt), C O'Reilly, J Lewis.

Umpires: C Bolger, I Bolger.