Cork Youth team on a high as College Corinthians head to Portmarnock for FAI Cup semi-final

The Cork youth team had a wonderful 5-0 win over Wexford in the FAI Inter-League semi-final last Saturday to earn a place in the decider against Mayo in three weeks.

Cork manager Louis Nolan was delighted with his team’s performance, but he knows they have plenty of work to do if they are to bring the cup back to Leeside.

“I’m absolutely delighted with the performance from the lads last weekend,” Nolan said.

“From the first whistle, they showed hunger, intensity, and a real desire to win. Scoring five goals against a strong Wexford side is no small feat. We created chances and made them count, which is something we’ve been working hard on in training. 

The composure in front of goal, the sharp movement and the quality of our decision-making in the final third was exceptional.

“The work-rate, discipline, and structure were top-class, and every player played their part, both defensively and going forward. We’ll enjoy the victory, but our focus now shifts to the final, where we’ll be ready to give it everything again.

“It’s about keeping the players sharp, focused, and ready for whatever the final throws at us. We’ll take confidence from this result, but we won’t get ahead of ourselves.

“There’s still a job to be done, and we’ll be giving everything to make sure we’re ready to compete at our best,” Nolan added.

Kai O’Neill who scored the opening two goals last Saturday was delighted with how the game panned out and is really looking forward to the final.

“Wexford were physically challenging for us, but I thought we played to our strengths and eventually broke them down and scored the all-important first goal,” O’Neill said.

“I feel we had to come out in the second half and push to score the next goal and when we did that I thought we put in a great performance.

“The whole squad have contributed to this and now we’ll put our full focus on the final,” O’Neill added.

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Corinthians face a tricky FAI Youth Cup semi-final away to Portmarnock on Sunday. Corinthians are unbeaten in all competitions this season, however, their manager Barry McGrath is confident that his team is ready after some good training this week.

“The lads have been working hard in training this week and have been totally focused on the Portmarnock game on Sunday,” McGrath said.

“We have a strong squad, so if someone has to come into the starting 11, I’m confident they will cope. We are probably going into the game as slight underdogs and this will hopefully suit us, as I feel our performance drops when we are favourites.

“There is very little between the four teams left in the competition and having seen the other teams play, I feel the overall winner could come from our semi-final.

“I would be confident we could prevail, but again, the first goal will be a big bearing on the result. It will be a great occasion for the lads and hopefully we can make it to the final, but either way, it will be a great experience for the lads, especially those who haven’t made it this far in the competition before.”