Pembroke Wanderers needed to dig deeply into their reserve resources to stave off Railway Union's robust challenge in the Cable & Wireless-sponsored Leinster Senior Cup final at Grange Road yesterday.
Once more, Pembroke absorbed a good deal of pressure as Railway attacked more vigorously, particularly after they had gone a goal down to the holders. Trevor Dunne put Pembroke ahead when he finished off a short corner in the 31st minute.
Nigel Henderson was required to be at his sharpest, notably in foiling Stevie Moulton, Sean Southgate and Teddy Lynch of an equaliser.
Allan Kershaw (in Paudie Carley's berth) was also to the fore in Pembroke's resistance, while the irrepressible Devin Donnelly was at the heart of everything in midfield.
Conor O'Brien and Padraig O'Brien dealt defiantly with Pembroke's counter-thrusts, but 10 minutes from the end, Dave Staniforth, finding himself isolated as Justin Sherriff swooped on a deft pass from Alan Giles, conceded a penalty stroke which Sherriff converted to seal the issue.
PEMBROKE WANDERERS: N Henderson; M Tijs, D McKeen, C Kelly; A Kershaw; T Dunne, D Donnelly (capt), S Stewart; J Sherriff, A Giles, D Good. Subs: R Gormley , A Cooke, K Treacy, I Battle.
RAILWAY UNION: D Staniforth; M Lynch, Padraig O'Brien, C O'Brien (capt), K Kinch; S Southgate, Paul O'Brien, M Henderson; S Moulton, S Hopkins, B Parsons. Subs: J Hatcher, G O'Brien, G O'Meara.
Umpires: R O'Connor, M Canniffe.
A talented Monkstown side won the Benny Atkinson under 16 cup in defeating Glenanne 5-0. The margin would have been greater but for an outstanding performance by Darren Gill. The only shots to beat him came from Andrew Kenny, Gareth Watkins, William Ayymer and Eric Burdett (2).
MONKSTOWN: G O'Leary, D Fox, C Black (capt), P Scollard, I Horsfield; G Watkins, A Barrett, W Aylmer; P Balbirnie, A Kennny, N Heyward-Jones. Subs: E Burdett, S Prentice, A Cooke, R O'Moore, A Griffin.
GLENANE: D Gill; E Lynch, K O'Malley, J Kehoe, L O'Farrell; S Phelan, K McCabe, D McDonnell; G Shaw, M O'Regan, I Hanlon. Subs: D Berry, D McCarthy, T Murphy, G Sexton.
Umpires: H Donnelly, C Deane.
