League and cup double for Villa
CCFL Division Two Cup Final
Temple Villa 5, Banagher Utd 3
Temple Villa completed the league and cup double with victory over Banagher Utd in an eventful cup final at Willow Park on Saturday evening.
As early as the second minute some nerves in the Villa defence allowed Banagher's Jack Slevin to score an easy opener. They held on to that lead comfortably enough before Villa's probing play yielded two goals from dead balls ten minutes before the interval.
Villa captain Anthony Allen scored both, the first from beautiful free-kick to the roof of net from an acute angle, after Dean O'Neill was upended. The same duo were involved in Villa's lead goal when O'Neill was fouled in the penalty area after a lovely pass from Benny Magennis, Allen made no mistake with the spot kick.
Villa started the second half on the front foot and eight minutes in Sean O'Neill cleverly flicked the ball to the net from a corner to make it 3-1. Just before the half hour, Villa went further ahead when some lovely passing play ended with David Cleary finding Jay Hyland who showed great composure to find the top corner from ten yards.
It now looked an uphill battle for Banagher but their heads never dropped and with only five minutes on the clock, Paddy Shea headed home from a corner followed closely by a good strike from a tight angle to leave the minimum between the teams. With time almost up Villa supporters were relieved to see Anthony Allen complete his hat-trick finishing low past the advancing keeper.
A fantastic end to a memorable 50th anniversary season in which this squad and management team answered all the questions asked of them.
This is a very experienced Villa squad packed with serial winners and all of that was required to get over a good Banagher team who performed so well for long periods of the game.
Another pleasing note is that ten of the eighteen man squad have played schoolboy football with our club.
There were too many good performances on the day to mention with the entire starting eleven and substitutes putting in good performances as they have done all season.
Special mention to the management team of James O'Grady and Johnny Hannon who put a top class squad together and worked tirelessly throughout the season.
The end of season awards were held afterwards with the captain of the club's 1983 Counties Cup winning team, Padraig Igoe making the presentations.
Players' player of the year went to Jay Hyland, Dean O'Neill took the young player award on his debut season for the seniors. Anthony Allen ended as top goalscorer with an impressive total of twenty one.
Temple Villa: Paul Bannon, Dean O'Neill, Sean O'Neill, James Craughwell, Peter Sherlock, Darren Nugent, Damien Rushe, David Cleary, Anthony Allen (captain), Benny Magennis, Jay Hyland. Subs: Ollie Nally, Nemanja Bozic, Hugh Allen, Callum Dunne, Daniel Seery, Ruairi Casey, Kallum Nugent.