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FAI Junior Cup (Last 16)
Ballynanty Rovers v Killarney Celtic
Shelbourne Park (Limerick)
Sunday, February 5, at 2pm

FOLLOWING their heroics in the last round, Celtic are hoping to repeat the feat. Killarney Celtic have already exceeded expectations in this year’s FAI Junior Cup by shocking Mervue United and Newmarket Celtic. Now it’s time to see if they can go one better and reach the quarterfinals of Irish soccer’s showpiece competition.

It’ll take something exceptional to top their incredible last 32 victory over Newmarket, that’s for sure. That memorable 3-2 win will go down as one of the greatest in the history of the club and players and management deserve a lot of credit for making it this far.

Celtic are on a great run of form and they followed up on that triumph in Clare with another road win last weekend, this time against Ringmahon of Cork in the Munster Junior Cup.

Confidence will be sky high within the camp but they’ll also be well aware that in Ballynanty Rovers they’re coming up against a truly formidable opponent.

Balla (as they’re affectionately known) currently find themselves third in the ultra-competitive Limerick league with 27 points from 14 games and at 6/1 the current Lawson Cup holders are third favourites to win the FAI Junior Cup outright.

En route to the last 16 they’ve defeated Limerick sides Newport Town (A) 2-1, Croom United (A) 3-0, Bruff United (H) 15-0 and Mungret Regional (H) 8-1, before beating Wexford’s Courtown Hibs (A) 1-0 in the 5th round and then Rush Athletic of Dublin (A) 1-0 in the last 32.

The team from the north side of Limerick City certainly have pedigree in this competition: they made it all the way to the final in 2014 but were unable to get the better of St Michael’s (Tipperary) on the day.

The Hoops will travel to Limerick on Sunday without the services of striker Cathal O’Shea who will serve a suspension for the red card he picked up against Newmarket, while regular left back Brendan Falvey is a doubt having broken a bone in his hand in the same game.

For the third round in a row, Celtic go into a huge FAI Junior Cup game as underdogs.

The bookies have them at 11/4 (which, interestingly, is a shorter price than they were against Newmarket in the previous round) so the travelling support know it’ll take another massive team effort if the men from Killarney are to claim another historic scalp.

Ballynanty are a very strong outfit and home advantage may be enough to see them through but Celtic have already defied the odds this season. With the right attitude, and a little bit of luck, there’s no reason they can’t do it again.