Rockmount beat Waterford to advance to Munster Senior final against either Cork City or Kerry

Rockmount are through to the Munster Senior Cup final for the third time in six seasons and everyone around the club is buzzing says manager Jason Purcell.

The Northsiders had to do it the hard way by twice coming from behind against Waterford FC at Ben Wadding Park, before seeing off their far away rivals in a tense penalty shoot-out after the game finished two all after extra time.

Jason O’Connell got the decisive spot kick on a night that opened with Jordan Faria scoring inside five minutes. 

Eoin Murphy equalised with a penalty and he held his nerve from the same position in extra-time as Orion Cala had restored the host's advantage.

Rockmount forced the shoot-out and got the job done, and they will face the winner of Cork City and Kerry in the final at the Munster FA Turner's Cross Stadium.

“There’s a good old buzz around the club at the moment,” Purcell talked about the run to date.

“You know, there’s a lot of young players, I suppose, and myself and Stuart Fitzgerald have only gone in there since August, really, you know. 

"So it was a big game, a real big game for us.” 

The win followed another memorable night for the club has they had to defeat College Corinthians away from home in the quarter finals, with the game moved from Whitechurch midway through that Thursday afternoon.

Rockmount have made a habit of that this season, as their campaign began by defeating Temple United on penalties last November at Temple Park. 

The Mount travelled to Fermoy in the next round, and survived a late scare after their hosts pulled two goals back at the start of the second half after Eoin Murphy scored four times in 45 minutes.

“Corinthians are the current FAI Intermediate Cup champions and in fairness to them, I think they were missing one or two players the same night,” he looked back on their run so far.

“I thought we played well. We fully deserved to win that game, I thought. 

"And then, the Waterford game, you know, you're going in and you're underdogs and there's not much expected of you. 

"But, yeah, I thought we performed very well on the night.” 

The Waterford result stands out above all else, and Purcell went through every possible emotion while standing on the sidelines at Ben Wadding Park.

“When we conceded it after a minute I thought this could be a long night,” he said.

“But, in fairness, as the game went on, we grew in confidence, and, like I said, there was a lot of young players in the team. 

"And then, I suppose, when they went 2-1 ahead in extra time the boys rallied again in fairness. 

"I thought it was a very good performance to come back again, you know.” 

Rockmount return to domestic action with one eye on the meeting between Cork City and Kerry, which is currently set for February, and they are in the mix at the top of the table in the Munster Senior League Premier Division.

The Mount are also through to the latter stages of the O’Connell Cup and Beamish Stout Senior Cup following victories over Carrigaline United and Fermoy over the last few weeks.

“We just take every game as it comes - we move on now and we’ll park it for the next couple of weeks and focus on getting a couple of league points,” he added.

“I suppose we'll park it for the next couple of months to focus on trying to get some league points, you know.”