BLARNEY Utd LEESIDE 2000

MURPHY'S STOUT AOH CUP FINAL - BLARNEY UNITED V LEESIDE - TURNER'S CROSS - SUNDAY 3.00pm.



AOH PREVIEW

Premier big guns, Leeside and Blarney United, clash in Sunday's Murphy's Stout AOH Cup final at Turner's Cross (kick off 3.00pm). Neither club has won the coveted cup previously and current form suggests that there will be plenty of goals and goalmouth action.



Leeside have the better attack. It is led by the inter-league pair of Conor O'Leary and young David Welch who, remarkably, has scored twice in each of Leeside's games in this season's competition.



The Blarney attack has not been as impressive, though the likes of Declan Twomey and Tom Bevan are capable marksmen. Blarney will have to shade it in midfield if they are to have a chance. If not, they will forced to rely heavily on keeper Paul Collins who is the more experienced of the two keepers on view and who gives them an edge in this department.



Premier teams are exempt from the opening two rounds of the AOH and Leeside were drawn away to Passage in round three. Welch began his string of doubles here and O'Leary (2) and Mick Mooney also scored in a 5 - 0 win.



Pearse Celtic were their next opponents and they too were easily disposed of. O'Leary (3), Welch (2), and Eoghan Linehan, scored in the 6 - 0 away win.



Then followed a home draw against the then reigning champions Greenmount Rangers. Leeside rose to the occasion as did Golden Boot leader Welch who scored two beauties as the Little Islanders won 2 - 1.



Young Jeremy O'Sullivan was the scoring ace as Leeside crushed Springfield 6 - 0 in round six. O'Leary and Welch (2) added to O'Sullivan's hat trick to make the final score 6 - 0.



The recent semi-final at Turner's Cross was also an easy one for Leeside. They were up against third division Tower Street Athletic who, to be fair, had ambushed a couple of Premier sides on their march. But Tower were no match for the Premier big boys and O'Leary (3) and Welch (2) gave Leeside a 5 - 1 win.



Blarney Utd began their AOH campaign with an unimpressive and hard earned 2 - 0 win over second division Beaumont. Neil O'Riordan and Alan O'Brien (pen.) scored.



In the fourth round they were drawn away to St John Bosco's B and here a late late double by Twomey gave them a 3 - 1 decision. Bevan scored earlier. Twomey also came up with a late winner as they saw off a stern Glenvale challenge 1 - 0.



They had home advantage for the quarter-final against second division Glencairn and again made hard work of it. Bevan and sub Declan Meldrum struck to give Blarney a two goal lead but they had a late sweat after Glencairn pulled one back.



Blarney seem to do better against the better teams and showed good form in beating Rockville's Premier side 2 - 0 in the Turner's Cross semi-final. Paul O'Connor and Bevan got the scores.



Michael Mulcahy is the Blarney manager and he has overseen a gradual improvement over the past few years. John Shine came in for Richie Keating at Leeside at the start of this season and has organised his resources well. Dan Deady is the referee for Sunday's game and his assistants are Stephen O'Connell and Damien O'Mahony.