College Corinthians U17s lift FAI Cup against Corduff

College Corinthians 3 Corduff 1

MATTHEW Broderick and Conor O’Sullivan were the heroes at Home Farm FC in Dublin on Saturday as College Corinthians were crowned FAI U17 Cup champions with a final victory over Corduff.

Tied at 1-1 after Luke O’Donnell and Luke Kearns had traded first-half goals, Broderick and O’Sullivan pounced in the final quarter to ensure the silverware would be taking a trip to the Leeside.

Corinthians had scored an astonishing 41 goals en route to this decider and their 42nd of the campaign arrived with less than five minutes gone on the clock. After skipper Harvey Skieters was pushed over in the box by Corduff defender Ben Good, O’Donnell steered the subsequent penalty into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

This was a dream start to the action for Peter Healy’s outfit, but their lead was a short-lived one. Picking up possession on the edge of the Corinthians area in the ninth minute, Corduff attacker Kearns fired an unstoppable strike beyond the reach of netminder Jack O’Leary.

Although the game settled down from this point, there was no shortage of incident in the remaining minutes of the opening period. Corduff’s King Obular had a goal on the half-hour mark ruled out for offside and the same fate befell the energetic Skieters moments later.

The decision to chalk off the latter incensed the Corinthians bench as Skieters had taken the ball around a defender before shooting past Adam Flinter.

The sides were ultimately inseparable at the break, however, with both believing that the game was there to be won.

The prospect of extra-time loomed large before Corinthians finally bagged their second goal on 69 minutes. After eyeing up the target from 18 yards, Broderick clinically rattled the net with a left-footed piledriver.

This wasn't quite ‘game, set and match’, but when substitute O’Sullivan found the top right-hand corner with an extraordinary swerving strike from a left-hand angle on 84 minutes, the Corinthians dream of national success became a reality.

COLLEGE CORINTHIANS: Jack O’Leary; Daniel McCarthy, David Healy, Jerry Murphy, Ben Heinen (James O’Connor 92); Eric Cunningham, Luke O’Donnell; Harry Quilligan (Rian O’Riordan 74), Matthew Broderick (Noah Ryan 85), Max Lee (Conor O’Sullivan 65); Harvey Skieters.

CORDUFF: Adam Flinter (Aaron Kiernan 46); Nelson Pedro, Ben Good (Josh Clarke 46), Eddie Amusat; Milton Garcia, Sean Douglas (Jethro Edet 46), Conor Rice, Nathan O’Kelly; Luke Kearns, King Obular (Habir Malik 82), Anthony Mihutescu.

Referee: Liam Byrne.