HOCKEY/Monkstown 2 Glenanne 1:MONKSTOWN HELD their nerve to win their first Leinster Senior Cup in over 30 years after extra-time at Grange Road yesterday.

The winners were seconds from losing the final but scored in the last play of normal time to level 1-1 before adding the winner 12 minutes into extra-time in a tense and lively contest.

In a match that swung from end to end and with endless chances for both sides, it was Monkstown who remained composed enough to just swing it their way.

Throughout the match there was little between the teams, although Monkstown almost took an early lead when Andy Ward pounced on a scrambling ball in the circle near to the penalty spot, his flick skimming off the crossbar and away to safety.

Glenanne had their breaks too but it was the dying minutes and in extra-time when all the drama took place. With just three minutes remaining Gary Shaw picked up on the right of the circle, cut in and flicked what looked like an innocuous ball at Monkstown goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald. But the ball took a deflection and fell in, giving Glenanne the lead with just minutes left.

Seconds from the final whistle and with Monkstown pressing, Glenanne’s Shane O’Donoghue bundled Fran Lee off the ball. Monkstown rightly looked incredulous when a corner was given and not a penalty.

The hooter honked for full-time and only the corner remained. It broke down but Glenanne fouled and it was retaken. Up stepped Andy Ewington and he placed a no-nonsense flick to the goalkeeper’s right and knee high for 1-1 and the game lurched into extra-time.

Little remained between the teams but again it was Monkstown who gained the all important short corner. Again Ewington stepped up and with remarkable precision, put the ball in almost exactly the same place, to Stephen Doran’s right, for the winner and the cup for the first time since 1979.

A minute’s silence was held before the match for Glenanne’s Roly O’Donoghue who died unexpectedly recently.

GLENANNE SQUAD: S Doran, F Jaros, D Keogh, M McGuinness, G Shaw, D Shaw, B Parsons, J Kane, E O’Malley, J Brennan (capt), S Brownlow, S O’Donoghue, R Shaw, J Stewart, G Shaw, C Kennedy.

MONKSTOWN SQUAD: D Fitzgerald, G Watkins (capt), S Cole, N Lee, E O’Connor, R Sykes, D Cole jnr, G Groves, B Groves, K Good, F Ryan, F Lee, B McHenry, R O’Moore, R Mason, G O’Halloran, A Ewington, A Ward.

Umpires: G Conn, K Cholewa.