Midleton and Lakewood Athletic advance in FAI U18 Cup with big wins over Belvedere and Leicester Celtic

Midleton and Lakewood Athletic had superb victories in the FAI U18 Cup last Sunday.

However, there was heartache for Leeside United, who bowed out of the competition after extra-time and last year’s champions College Corinthians who battled hard but also they also crashed out.

Midleton got revenge for the loss in the final of the FAI U17 Cup final last season with an excellent 4-3 win over Belvedere at Knockgriffin.

Rian Thornhill was the hero for the Mapgies as he bagged two goals for himself including the winner in the 79th minute, with Sean Og Madden and Noah Nsengivumva also getting on the scoresheet to see them into the final 16 of the competition.

The Midleton manager Colm Fitzgerald was full of praise for both sided in was a fantastic cup tie and now he can look forward to the next round.

“It was a fantastic game of football from both team, however, we knew going into the game that Belvedere had some excellent players so we had to change our approach,” Colm said.

“We worked on shape and transitions for the past few weeks and the lads responded brilliantly today.

“ When we scored in the second minute gave us a huge confidence boost, but Belvedere are a super team and kept coming back every time we scored.

“But credit our lads never let their heads drop and their work rate from the players and everyone that came on was phenomenal.

“I have to give credit to the officials today, as It was a very competitive game and they were excellent throughout, Fitzgerald added.

Lakewood Athletic had to come from behind to beat Leicester Celtic by two goals to one at Ovens.

The Lakewood manager Aodh Quinlivan was delighted with his team’s performance and thought they deserved to win the game on the day.

“It was a great, physical end-to-end cup tie and we had to dig deep after going a goal down after 20 minutes but came in level at half-time after Dessy prodded home a Cian O'Flynn corner in the 36th minute,” Aodh said.

“The match could have gone either way in a frantic second half, however, we scored the winner in the 78th minute, when Adam Quinlivan burst up the pitch from full-back and calmly slotted the ball past the advancing keeper.

“From there to the end, we defended brilliantly to come away with a deserved win and I’m extremely proud of the lads who dug deep for a famous win” Quinlivan added.

Leeside United travelled to Dublin to play Peaumount United and went behind 1-0 in the 46th minute when Nathan Burke scored for the hosts. The Cork side equalised 1-1 in nine minutes later their captain Ronan Murray home and both sides couldn’t be separated with the game finishing 1-1. 

There was still very little between the sides in the extra periods, however. Lucas Ova’s came up with the winning goal for the hosts in the final minute to ensure they went through to the next round.

“Today was a very disappointing result for us, as we travelled up with high expectations, but were very flat in the first half,” Leeside manager Conor Murray said after the game.

“We went a goal down but fought back and equalised with a great header from our captain Ronan Murray.

“The game looked liked it was going to penalties and in the last minute of extra time Ronan hit the crossbar with a 35 yard free kick, however, 60 seconds later they scored the winner, so small margins but we'll learn from it,” Murray added.