St Francis College, Rochestown win prestigious cup in Cardiff

ST Francis College, Rochestown made Cork soccer history by becoming the first school from the Rebel county to win the SAFIB Allen McKinstry Cup, the prize for beating the best of the best from England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.

The tournament brings together the champions from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and the team managed by former Cork City U19 coach Stephen Bermingham won the trophy by defeating Shenfield High School from England in the competition’s final in Cardiff.

Roco won 2-0 through goals from Cillian Ross and Darragh Lynch and upset the odds in Wales.

Roco’s Darragh O’Flaherty was also named Player of the Tournament, which capped off a perfect few days for the Cork school in Wales.

“What it is – because we won the All-Ireland First Year competition last year, that qualified us to compete in this competition over in Wales,” Bermingham explained just how prestigious the SAFIB Allen McKinstry Cup is.

“It is a yearly competition and it has the winners of all the nations – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and us. You have the winners of all the competitions. The team we beat in the final, Shenfield from England, they were champions of England out of 4,000 schools. They are a football academy as well.

Some of them are playing with Manchester United, Arsenal, West Ham, and Fulham. I think they had seven or eight full-time academy players on their team.” 

Goalkeeper Alex McEvoy got Roco’s campaign up and running by saving and scoring a penalty in their first game against Whitchurch of Wales.

“From that point we got stronger and stronger,” Bermingham explained.

“We played Redden Court in the semi-final, again a very good team. It was a very even match and we got stronger as competition on, as I said, and we took our chances. It was a very good result.

“The top two teams in each group played each other in the final and we got Shenfield in the final.

From the moment the tournament started, everyone was talking about Shenfield being the eventual winners. 

"Every school over there was saying how strong they were and we knew we were up against it. We saw some of their previous games and they dominated those games, and they were four or five nil up in their second game against a team from Wales and they made a lot of subs.” 

Roco got the win, with a squad consisting of various members of clubs in the Cork Youth Leagues. Amongst those represented in the final were College Corinthians, Carrigaline United, Douglas Hall, Passage AFC, and Ringmahon Rangers.

ROCHESTOWN SQUAD: Alex McEvoy; Colm Tynan, Ethan O’Leary, Darragh O’Flaherty, Jack McMahon, Adam Kirwan, Rhys Looney, John Dollard Young, Jack Punch, Conor Stack, Darragh Lynch, Calum Hanna, Ollie O’Neill, Cillian Ross, Patick Murphy, Cillian Farrell.

MANAGEMENT: Stephen Bermingham; Mark Dolan, Josh Barry, Cian Barry