By Shane Supple | Photos by Shane Supple

On Monday morning last the 5th May Youghal United faced Douglas Hall in the quarter final of the Beamish Cup. This was to be the last game on the fixtures calendar for Youghal in this knockout competition. The game was at home in Ardrath Park with a morning kick off. Youghal started well despite several injuries in the squad and did manage to hold their own for the first half, despite conceding two goals, both own goals , which proved to be their undoing.

Youghal battled hard but with a two goal deficit it was going to be a tough second half and 15 minutes into the second half were reduced to ten men when the Youghal defender was sent off for an innocuous challenge on the Douglas Hall forward. The referee had no option but to sideline the Youghal player, as he was the last man back. Douglas Hall then started to dominate the game with the extra man and with continuous pressure on the Youghal defence scored two more goals to leave them winners on a score line of 4-0.

Youghal must dust them selves off and get ready for the big playoff decider on Thursday night against Midleton. The game was fixed for Cobh but both teams tossed a coin to select either Midleton or Youghal for the game. Midleton won the toss and the match is now on in Midleton for Thursday evening. We wish Youghal all the best and hope they can win this game against a strong Midleton team who they have not beaten this season in the last four meetings. All the games have been very close with little to separate them so let’s hope Youghal can pull this one out of the hat and gain promotion and go up a division next year. We wish Manager Michael Durkin, Mentors Anthony Horgan, Liam Ryan, Davy O Brien and the team every success on Thursday night.