Cookstown win a cracker and extend Monkstown’s cup wait

MONKSTOWN’S wait for a men’s Irish Senior Cup title will stretch into a 98th year after they were beaten 4-3 by Cookstown in a stunning final at Belfield yesterday.

It ends a 25-year drought for the Co Tyrone side, who also laid to rest the ghosts of the 2009 final, when they were humbled 6-0 by Pembroke Wanderers.

The game is likely to be remembered as the day Ian Sloan came of age on the national stage. The prodigious 17-year-old talent converted both of Cookstown’s corners and proved the game’s match-winner.