A VERY emotional Eddie Kenny says he was ‘close to a heart attack’ after he watched his Rockmount team beat Cockhill Celtic on penalties to win the FAI Intermediate Cup at The Showgrounds in Sligo on Sunday afternoon.

Cian Murphy hit the decisive penalty before Corey McBride missed in sudden death and that keeps the biggest trophy in amateur football on the north-side of the city for the first time ever.

This follows a chaotic game that began with Adam Crowley stabbing in a free from Eoin Murphy and that gave Rockmount the lead in the 17th minute. 

This quickly evaporated as Jason Sexton fouled inside the area and a penalty was given to Cockhill Celtic.

They scored and it went 1-1, a score line that stayed throughout the remaining minutes of the 90 and extra-time.

Both teams had chances to win it, with the best ones falling to the side from the Ulster Senior League. 

Stephan Duffy went close at the end of the 90 but his shot inside the box hit the side netting, which caused a major sigh of relief from Kenny and the Rockmount coaching team.

In the shoot-out, Rockmont twice missed before they came back and won the cup for the second season in a row.

“I was close to a heart attack at one stage,” he summed it up.

“It’s probably hard to take in what we are after doing. 

"Phenomenal effort from the club, from the players, from the supporters. In fairness, it is not easy to come up the road, should I say come up to Sligo on a weekend and give up their time. 

"I’m just trying to take it all in.

“Once again the lads dug deep. There’s no one else you want in the trenches. It’s just huge.

“There’s 33/34 of us and the committee. The lads in fairness dug in. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t pretty. 

"Finals are only about winning.

“I thought we started very good, the first ten or fifteen minutes. We did what I wanted us to do. We showed our experience of being in a final before and fairness, Cockhill then turned the screw and stopped us from playing.

“Maybe that was their game, I don’t know. But they done well in the middle of the park."

That’s something of a habit at Rockmount Park as the Intermediate Cup is the second trophy that they lifted this season.

They also won the Tom Hand Cup by beating then FAI Junior Cup champions on penalties at Youghal. 

They are also through the semi-finals of the Keane Cup and they are set to face Midleton later on this week.

The manger gave a stark response when questioned about the upcoming schedule and the chance for more trophies at Rockmount Park.

“That’s Thursday! Thursday, Saturday, Tuesday,” he said.