WITH no players on international call and going into the New Year just a point behind Avoca, Three Rock Rovers will more than likely retain their Leinster Senior League title. Meanwhile, Avoca's main objective now should be geared towards gaining an honourable placing in the European Cup Winners Cup tournament in Reading at Easter when their Ireland players will have returned from World Cup duty.
Although Robbie Ryan was away, several of Avoca's international figures did not spare themselves in a last stand against Three Rock at Rathdown on Saturday. Galahad Goulet and Colin Hade played with much passion as their side sought a win which would have given them a three-point cushion at the top of the table. But barely a minute from the end, a short corner was conceded for Rovers to force a 1-1 draw.
Avoca are also losing their New Zealand fringe player Paul Derham who is going back to Christchurch for trials. If he does not gain inclusion in his country's squad for the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, he intends coming back to Dublin to help out his new club in their league quest.
In the meantime, Nigel Kingston and Trevor Dagg will be depending on the up-and-comers to keep in touch with Three Rock. They do not meet again in the league until March 22nd, when everyone will be home from Malaysia. Saturday's match was not a classic. Rovers, missing Matt Bechmann, seemed to be afflicted by festive disorders in the first half as Avoca pressed with greater urgency and should have been comfortably clear by the interval. They led only by an early goal put away by Enda Gallanagh in a short-corner link-up with Trevor Dagg. Gallanagh should have scored again but could not extricate the ball from Anthony O'Neill's flailing limbs.
Three Rock managed some momentum after the interval and although Liam Canning was kept out of range by JP Murphy and his cohorts, strong probing by Robin Madeley was threatening to yield a breakthrough on the right Sank. Madeley had a scorching short-corner drive saved by Stephen Kinsella but from the final set-piece, Kinsella had no alternative but to parry Rick Johnson's lob shot and Alan Bothwell was on hand to nudge home the equaliser.
Pembroke Wanderers may well be the most lively challengers to Rovers for the title. Indeed, they share second place following their 3-1 win over YMCA at Serpentine Avenue, but with Nigel Henderson and Francis de Rosa also heading for the Ireland training camp, and Turlough O Siochain being the latest injury victim, the side may be lacking depth if Peter Young and Colin Kelly do not make quick recoveries.
It must have been encouraging, though, to see 17-year-old Alan Kershaw play with so much composure at right-back. He had settled in well against Glenanne in the Neville Cup final and then had the boldness against YM to join his brother Simon in the circle as Pembroke surged in search of a handsome margin. Goalkeeper Gregg Finn, though, exemplified YM's spirit in hard times and was beaten only by two of Stephen Stewart's increasingly lethal `dragsters' and a close-range tuckaway by Jamie McBride to seal the issue on his Christmas release from Teddington. This was after Stephen Barry had given the visitors some cheer in holding his nerve admirably to score on the break from a pass out of defence by Andy Roberstson.
Cup specialists Glenanne, with Aidan Kidney back on the line, moved into fourth place on their own with a short-corner goal by Stephen Butler earning the points against at Tallaght against Railway Union.
