Courts aim for Irish Junior Cup success

The last time a side from the city had their hands on the Junior Cup was in 1967 when Institute secured the trophy and Courts will be hoping they can go one step further themselves this week, after they lost the 2006 final to Derryhirk United.

For manager Stephen Nicholl, he knows it's going to be a big ask for his side to overcome the two times Junior cup winners.

"They have won the last two finals so they'll be going into the final more confident than us, but we have nothing to lose," admitted Nicholl.

"If our boys go up to Moyola's ground and relax then there is no reason why they can't produce an upset; on their day we are as good as any team in the North West, there is no question about that.

"We are a young new side, all over the park we are strong and it's just a matter of clicking on the night; if we get the ball down and pass it about like we can do, then we'll definitely create chances and we'll not be going into the final fearing them."

The Waterside men have been given a second chance in this year's competition, after their quarter-final tie against Ford had to be replayed.

"The Irish Football Association let us back into play Ford again and I felt we should have beaten them in the first match, after we let a 2-0 goal lead slip in a disappointing second half from our boys, but we got the second bite at the cherry and we didn't mind that at all.

"We did nothing wrong and second time round we went up to them and beat them 1-0; we always knew playing Maghera Strollers in the semi-final that we were in with a shout, because we have beaten them twice in the league, we put ten goals past them in those two league games.

"The fact that Maghera trained on that 3G artificial pitch at Moyola didn't bother us at all because we knew that we would score goals against them, so to win 3-0 was great and we as a club would like to dedicate that victory to Eddie Sargent."

Courts midfielder Kolyn Patterson is a slight doubt going into the final and his manager is hoping his skipper will recover in time.

"Ten minutes into last week's semi-final Kolyn pulled up with a knee problem, which he injured last year, but he'll get a rest and fingers crossed he'll get his knee strapped up and he'll be grand.

"He's very important to us because on his day he's one of the best players in the league and he's good for team morale just to have him on the pitch."

Like their 2006 final it's expected Courts will have a large travelling support making the trip to Castledawson.

"There should be a big crowd going up, I don't know how many buses we are taking with us, I think we are closing Ulsterbus down for the night," joked Nicholl.

"If we were playing on Saturday I think we probably would have brought a bigger crowd, but I still think even though it's Friday night there will still be several buses making the trip."

Meanwhile fresh from their Matt Morrison Junior Cup penalty shoot-out heartache Greysteel have a chance to make amends when they face Sion Swifts in the City Cup Final also on Friday evening, at Wilton Park (KO 6.45pm).