Ballymackey and BT Harps set for first of two Cup finals
SOCCER: North Tipperary & District Leagie - Ricky Fogarty Cup Final Preview
By Gary Culbert
BALLYMACKEY v BT HARPS
Glenbane, Holycross
Sunday, 7th June
Kick-off @ 2.30pm
With a NT&DL Premier Division League and Shield already secured, BT Harps aim to secure the third part of a possible quadruple this Sunday, in the first of two meetings with Ballymackey.
The sides will firstly meet in the Ricky Fogarty Premier Cup final this Sunday afternoon in Holycross, ahead of their meeting in the blue-ribboned Kevin Fogarty Tipperary Cup final.
This will be the third meeting of BT Harps and Ballymackey this season, with the Templemore outfit winning both previous meetings 2-1 and 3-1. Indeed, Harps have only failed to win on just one occasion in their last eight meetings with George Haverty and Damien Bentley’s side. But oh, how vitally important that draw turned out to be, with Aiden White’s late free kick in March 2025 ultimately being the reason that Harps were pipped to the league title on the final day of last season by the now departed Killavilla United.
The ugly business of Ballymackey’s so-called ‘ineligible player’ being reported by a seemingly anonymous source is another factor in this intriguing match-up. Had Eamonn White been allowed to play in this final, predictions of the outcome may have differed.
The truth is that BT Harps are very heavy favourites for this one. We recently saw in the title play-off just how badly a period of inactivity can affect a side, and having not played a competitive fixture since a crazy eleven-goal end-of-season dead-rubber with Rearcross on May 10th, Ballymackey are certainly going to have some ring-rust in the initial stages. Their last meaningful game before that was their 3-1 loss to Harps on April 26th.
Ballymackey goalkeeper Brendan Hayes inexplicably received his fourth red card of the season in that 8-3 win over Rearcross, meaning usual outfield player Cormac Doheny will likely have to don the gloves for this heavyweight encounter.
One key area that ‘Mackey will look to exploit is the lightning pace of Cian Galvin down the right wing, especially given the fact that Harps’ slowest defender of the four usually resides down that side. If the former Nenagh AFC player can keep it simple and just knock the ball around the full-back and run onto it, he can cause some serious problems to the Harps backline.
Ballymackey have plenty of tidy footballers but it is leaders that they will need when the going gets tough on Sunday, and in central midfielder Cathal Delaney they have a fine one. The physically imposing box-to-box player won’t have it easy though, as the equally tough and strong Dean Lawlor will be his sparring partner.
In the backline, Ben O’Dwyer will be the main obstacle the tricky Harps forwards will have to circumnavigate. Having sustained what appeared to be a nasty knee injury in the title play-off two weeks ago, Ben Stapleton is unlikely to feature, so Ryan Loughnane will likely get the call-up to have a chance at repeating his heroics from last year’s final.
It would be outrageous to suggest that BT Harps would not complete some form of a treble in their remaining two games. But no matter the outcome this Sunday, these two will have to do it all over again the following week in the Kevin Fogarty Tipperary Cup final, so they better get used to each other!