It was a wet and cold evening Sunday afternoon and a large crowd had gathered on the dump hills and all around the pitch of the Bottom Bone Oval to watch Brookfield United play Glenard Celtic in the final of the Cinder Cup .
The atmosphere was electric and bets were being taken by a few bookmakers on the result . Both teams were evenly matched and it was nil all at half time.
Clinker Graham the coach of Brookfield was instructing the Bo Hughes the goalkeeper on how to get the knees up to collect high balls and how to use his fists properly to punch out any tricky crosses . Clinker marched up and down chewing Wrigley’s and trying to urge his team to start a siege attack as soon as they second half kicked off .
Bap Brennan coach of Glenard was trying to keep calm and instructed his team to keep dribbling and passing using their close ball control skills .
Last season when the two teams met in the semi-final it was a very close game with Brookfield scoring the winner in extra time . They went on to win the final much to the dislike and envy of Beltex Rovers who had a reputation as kings of the competition since they had won the Cinder cup for the past three years running .
After they lost to Brookfield the team fell apart and never recovered the form they once . Brickfield United where an extremely tight outfit however Glenard had put together a strong well-disciplined team which was just the right match for the quite aggressive coaching style of Clinker Graham who pushed his players to the limit every week . His training sessions were more of a punishment than work out . No doubt his method of training did pay dividends and he never held back his tongue when his players didn’t give 100% .
He let them know what he thought of them .
Bap Brenna was a different kind of coach and spoke with a gentle approach that seemed to have a calming effect on the team when they were under pressure . The way he talked to his team was reassuring and he started to gain a reputation as a talented coach that was luring players from outside the district to play for Glenard . Now this year Glenard has players of unknown ability and it was having results .
There was a professional referee with his two linesmen to keep control of the game and he took to the filed for the second half kick off .
Brickfield United were eager to get started and were fired up by their coach.
This was exactly what Bap Brennan had hoped for and he knew his team had the mental edge and that could be the telling factor might provide a result in the end . Bap told his players to ignore any thing the opposition said and let the ball do the talking .
Clinker had a different way of coaching and had already started screaming orders from the sideline .
Both coaches had their own way of developing a game plan
Both teams had scored in the opening 10 minutes of the second half and the game was still very close .
Clinker was pacing back and forward on the sideline while Bap seemed to be remaining calm .
There was 30 minutes to go until the full time whistle and the more people joined the large crowd watching the game . There was no room left anywhere around the ground so some people climbed on top of the Beltex mill roof and nearby house to get a view of the game .
Brookfield United won the ball in their own half and went on a counter attack with the wind in their favour . A dog ran onto the field and took the ball from the feet of the centre forward Sketer McIldowney who about to have a shot . The referee had to stop the game to have the dog removed from the pitch ,
The match was restarted with a drop ball that was won by Glenard and they held possession of the ball which was frustrating Brookfield United .
Topper Baxter the inside forward for Glenard hit the crossbar with a right foot shot from the outside the penalty area , the ball rebounded and Spud Murphy’s left foot volley was blocked by Brookfield’s right back , Curley Tanner for a corner kick .
The kick was taken and Bo Hughes went to claim the high ball with his knees up and instead of grabbing the ball he elected to punch it clear but missed and punched Topper Baxter in the face ,
The referee deemed it as intentional and awarded a penalty kick .
Clinker was having palpitations on the side lines .
The penalty kick was calmly slotted home into the back of the net and that proved to be the winner and Glenard Celtic lifted the trophy much to the dislike and envy of Brookfield United .
As Glenard Celtic supporters were celebrating their victory and Bap Brennan went to offer commiserations to the coach and players of the Brookfield United team . Bap reached out his hand and Clinker was quite aggressive and he pushed Bap’s hand away . The players were upset at losing as well but accepted it much better that the coach .
There was an Irish news journalist there who took some photographs and made a report of the game .
Clinker detested losing the game and blamed the dog for robbing Brookfield of the goal that should have been scored .
As twilight fell the large crowd dispersed and made their way home .
Keith never screamed orders from the sideline . The referee and linesmen were paid and after all the medal were received the bottom bone pitch was silent and night fell .
In the week ahead Clinker continued to protest about the unfair decision that awarded a penalty kick to Glenard and demanded a replay ,
His protests went nowhere and the result stood .
Glenard Celtic were the holders of the Cinder Cup .
Clinker had to wait another season to get the chance to win it back .
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
