George Walshe chuckled and John Young beamed as the last Mills Cup result - Naas 2, Three Rock Rovers 0 - came in by cable and wireless to the Pembroke Wanderers clubhouse on Saturday. Walshe, who played for Naas in the 1940s, immediately reminisced while his fellow Pembroke stalwart wondered modestly who had scored for the Kildare side in full renaissance.
John's son, Peter (the former Pembroke captain), in fact, had contributed to a lightning start by Naas at Caragh Road, delivering a pass through the middle for Ciaran Davenport to rattle the backboard in the eighth minute - while Rovers were still recovering from the first goal put away by Charlie Hill after a Mark Weir shot came back off the post.
Three Rock naturally threatened to make a comeback through a succession of short corners, but the second division team held their ground stoutly with John Lowry epitomising the overall workrate. So, after the elimination of YMCA, this was another special exploit.
"We're absolutely delighted," said club captain Dermot Hassey. "I don't think we've ever reached the semi-finals. We can only be positive, even on astroturf in the next stage."
Naas, of course, are left to cope with the creme de la creme in the Leinster pecking order - Pembroke, Glenanne (now with an Asian touch) and Corinthians, who advanced relatively comfortably from the other quarter-finals. Pembroke met some strenuous resistance from Avoca and were also wayward in their finishing in winning only by 2-1 at Serpentine Avenue. Justin Sherriff (direct) and Gordon Elliott (switch) scored from short corners, in between which Ian Cox poached a reply to leave it at 1-1 at half-time after Elliott, notably, had blistered an upright with a reverse-stick laser.
Later, Rory Kirwan went close, too, for Avoca who will not be daunted by next Saturday's Irish Senior Cup assignment against Instonians in Belfast. Nils O'Flanagan is now well settled back in the defence.
Glenanne drove through 3-1 at the expense of Aer Lingus with John Goulding adding a hat-trick at Tallaght to the four goals he had plundered against Trinity in a midweek league game. A string of passes yielded a particularly well worked score for a 2-1 interval lead.
Colin Stewart was presented with the December player-of-the-month award by Brian Chadwick at Whitechurch Park, but the Australian player-coach did not participate because of injury in Corinthians' 6-1 defeat of St Brendan's/Phoenix Park. Olly Close, Aaron Clauson and Mike McKillop made it 3-0 at the break, while there were home-brewed goals in the second half by Robbie Byrnes (2) and Colin Ross.
