Monkstown have what it takes to win

HOCKEY:THE MEN'S Irish Senior Cup weekend kicks off tomorrow with two semi-final matches at the National Hockey Stadium in Belfield. The finals take place on Sunday and will be televised as highlights on Monday evening on RTÉ 2.

The Didi Cole and Richard Mason-coached Monkstown will keep the Leinster flag flying when they face Ulster Kirk Cup winners Banbridge at 5pm tomorrow in the second of the two matches, with Cookstown facing Annadale in an all Ulster affair at 3pm.

The Ireland men’s team also face Canada in the first of their three matches against the tourists. It is the only one of the series in Dublin, the other two moving up north after the weekend. What it means is a festival of hockey at UCD, with most of the best players in the country on show at either club or national level.

Monkstown beat Instonians in this season’s Irish Senior Cup quarter-final 4-3 after a golden goal with a couple of regulars on the score sheet, Kyle Good, Andy Ewington, Brian Groves and Gareth Watkins, while the Banbridge route to this stage was more clear cut, Ross McCandless bagging both goals for Banbridge’s 2-0 win against NICS.

For Monkstown, who have been waiting longest for the trophy and in recent years have come closest, Ewington has probably been hottest in front of goal and has been scoring regularly since his club’s Leinster Senior Cup success against Glenanne in March. His no-nonsense playing style and set-piece threat will be one of the Dublin side’s main weapons.

It’s also the young Monkstown team’s third final weekend appearance in four years. They went down to Pembroke 3-0 in the 2008 final and last year fell 4-1 to Glenanne after a blistering first half from the winners from which Monkstown could not recover.

Whichever way the dice falls a new name is going to be on the coveted trophy and we need to go back to the 1980s to find the last time one of the four remaining teams won it. Cookstown are the last to have done that, in 1987, when they beat 1986 winners Banbridge 4-0.

It is going to a squad weekend for any team that makes it to Sunday as the finalists play two matches in consecutive days but Monkstown have the talent and are a young enough side to bounce back from previous disappointments even if they have one or two injury concerns.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Saturday: Irish Senior Cup semi-finals (at Belfield): Banbridge v Monkstown, 3pm; Cookstown v Annadale, 5pm. Sunday: Irish Senior Cup final, Belfield 3.30.