Royal School Armagh Head Coach Greg Thompson says his side have their eyes set on completing the ‘triple-double’ after they progressed to the final of the Belfast Telegraph Girls Senior Cup on Wednesday.
The side have won both the Senior Cup and Stevenson Cup for the last two seasons whilst they also won the Stevenson earlier this campaign and are now just one win away from achieving their goal.
However, they will now face fierce rivals Portadown College in the final after they also won their Semi-Final on Wednesday afternoon, beating Banbridge Academy 2-0.
“It will be our fourth final in a row, which is a massive achievement for the girls,” said Thompson.
“We are now looking to go one step more and add the cup to what has been a great season already.
We are going for the ‘triple-double’ or whatever you want to call it and we have a great group of girls here who have already tasted success and they want more of it and are hungry to keep working for it.”
After a cagey start in Hillsborough, Royal School Armagh finally broke the deadlock against Rainey Endowed at the beginning of the second quarter.
Mia Taylor saw her deflected effort from a penalty corner saved by goalkeeper Lola Henderson before the rebound fell nicely for Daisy Nicholson to convert at the back post.
Just seven minutes later the reigning champions doubled their advantage through Redmond after she was left unmarked at the penalty spot before squeezing her effort into the bottom left corner past Henderson.
Going into the third quarter trailing by two, Rainey Endowed had their chances to get back into the tie, winning consecutive penalty corners only to be charged down by first runner Katie Herron who cleared the danger.
Instead, it was Royal School Armagh who went closest to getting the games third goal as Rhianna Gillespie played through Daisy Nicholson before she saw her 44th minute effort saved by Henderson in goal.
Despite a late flurry of attacks for Rainey, it was Armagh who held on to seal a 2-0 win and progress to the final where Thompson is expecting another tough game from Portadown College.
“We have already played Portadown College this season in the Stevenson Cup Final, we know what they are about and they are a good team.
It is a local rivalry and all the girls know plenty about each other so there won’t be many surprises and it will be interesting to see which way it goes.”
In the days second Semi-Final Portadown earned a second chance at the title as they beat Banbridge Academy.
However, with just three minutes on the clock, it was Banbridge who had a penalty stroke opportunity to open the scoring.
Forward Alyssa Somerville was fouled by club teammate Rebekah Lennon, but luckily for the defender Makayla Stevenson stood strong to deny Ruby Johnston from the penalty spot.
From there it was Portadown who took control of the tie. Chances for both Lucy Megaw and Leah Galbraith both went close in quick succession but went narrowly wide of the post without testing the goalkeeper.
The deadlock was finally broken after 20 minutes when a ball played across the face of goal made its way through to Martha Speers at the back post and she converted from close range.
In the second half, it was Banbridge who came out on top, winning consecutive penalty corners before Sophie Tate saw her slapped effort go agonizingly wide of the far post.
Despite the Banbridge pressure, it was Portadown College who got the second goal of the game as Evie Thompson intercepted an attempted clearance before picking out the bottom corner from the top of the circle.
Following the second goal, a Katie Leslie strike from the top of the circle was the closest that her side came to getting back into the tie with last years beaten finalist holding on to win 2-0.
Speaking after the game, Alison Symington of Portadown College said her side were looking forward to their rematch against Royal School Armagh.
“I thought we played really well today, Beth our coach had us really well organised, we had a plan which we stuck to and I think the girls executed it brilliantly.
They set up a lot of goalscoring opportunities and scored to good goals with our goalkeeper also saving a penalty stroke, so we are really really pleased.
We are looking forward to another County Armagh final and hopefully we can use our experience from last year and we have a really good squad with great cohesion.”
PHOTO: Front Row Union