BALLINLOUGH ROVERS MARCH 1998

BALLINLOUGH UNITED:




Ballinlough are a club on the up, declared joint first team manager Roy O’Donovan at last week's presentation of the January Murphy's Stout team of the Month Award. "In the past five years we have progressed from the third through the second division and in each of the past three years we have improved our position in One B."



The Southside club, founder members of the AUL and runners up in the City Challenge cup that first season, caught the eye in January with some outstanding performances in the FAI Junior Cup. They travelled to Limerick to beat Pike Rovers and were then rated highly unlucky to lose to Galway’s Old Ground on penalties.



Ballincollig, under O’Donovan and Niall Fitzgerald, beat a string of premier teams in both the national and provincial cups this season and include Macroom, Ballincollig (MSL), Avondale (MSL), and Grattan Utd, among their victims. They also had a good run in the AOH before going down 1 - 0 to holders Passage.



The joint managers operate off a limited panel and are always on the lookout for talent in the area. They train every Tuesday and Thursday at the Douglas Community School (where they also play their home games) at 7.00pm and new members are always welcome.



Monday's presentation at the Briar Rose (who are great supporters of the club) was a most enjoyable event. The AUL were represented by John O'Sullivan (Treasurer) and Noel Cahill (registrar) while Aidan Cotter (whose brother Butch stars with Park Utd B) represented Murphy's Irish Stout.



In addition to sharing the managerial job, O’Donovan also holds the chair and his fellow officers are Tony Burke (secretary) and Liam Murphy (treasurer).



Martin Lyons is team captain and the other players are: Tony Burke, Niall Fitzgerald, Billy Scannell, Paul Cashman, Fergal Simpson, Mark Culligan, Kieran Nagle, Steve Cronin, Billy Geaney, Glen Ahern, Martin Davies, Ivan Murphy, Niall Langan, Gerry Powell and George Leahy.



Ballinlough honours: 1948 - runners up City Challenge Cup; 1953 - runners up Saxone Cup; 1958 - winners Minor League One, runners up Murphy Youth Cup; 1961 - winners Division Two League and Shield and runners up O’Keeffe Cup; 1972 - winners Division Two shield; 1983 - winners Youths 2, runners up Murphy Youth Cup; 1985 - winners AUL 1A; 1989 - runners up AUL 1B and runners up St Michael’s Cup; 1995 - runners up in AUL 2B.





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