WITH two quarter finals in 24 hours it could have been a testing weekend for Muckross but by yesterday evening they had progressed, with relative ease, into the last four of both domestic cup competitions.
A 4-1 victory over Pembroke Wanderers, in Saturday's Sharwood's Irish Senior Cup quarter final at Serpentine Avenue, sent them into yesterday's rescheduled Leinster Cup meeting with Old Alexandra in confident form and their weekend was made complete with a 2-0 victory, courtesy of a Mary Logue double.
Old Alexandra hardly had the ideal preparation for yesterday's match after their Irish Senior Cup tie against Pegasus went into extra time on Saturday. A second half Hilda Beamish goal for the Ulster side made the score 2-2 and, with no more goals in added time, the teams must replay in Belfast next Saturday.
Hermes will play the winners of Old Alexandra and Pegasus in the semi finals after their 2-1 victory over UCC at Belfield. When Daphne Sixsmith put them 2-0 up midway through the first half Hermes looked set for an easy afternoon, but E J Walsh pulled one back for the students just before half time, making it an uncomfortable second period for the home team.
Loreto scored one of the goals of the season in their match at the Antrim Forum against Randalstown - with a build-up involving seven players, from one end of the pitch to the other, rounded off by Elaine Goddard - but an extra time penalty from Jackie McWilliams put them out of the cup. Randalstown must now travel to Dublin to take on Muckross in the semi finals in three weeks' time.
Meanwhile Munster collected their second interprovincial title of the season when they won the Under 16 McCullough Cup in Galway on Saturday, on goal difference from Leinster.
