Veteran keeper Quirke has three causes for celebration

It’s quite a celebratory time for Valley Rovers goalkeeper Alan Quirke.

As well as helping his side back to senior football, yesterday was his 38th birthday and wife Christina is expecting a baby.

Thankfully, labour didn’t clash with the game and Quirke was delighted at everything coming together so well.

“It’s a great time for me and it’s great to be able to share it with my team-mates. It’s my first year gone from the inter-county scene and I really enjoyed training full-time with the club. The management have been superb and the whole club has got behind us.”

Former Cork goalkeeper Quirke was also a Premier IFC winner in 2009. Valleys were relegated after two years in the top flight but an infusion of younger players — many of whom won the county U21 title in 2013 — has re-energised the side.

“I suppose it’s pretty much a new team,” Quirke said.

“The team that won in 2009 were a bit older and we lost five or six fellas. The U21-winning team from last year are the spine of this team, plus a few older fellas.

“In fairness, for young fellas they’ve played very maturely all year. Even in the second half, we maybe lost our way a bit but we never panicked either.

“It’s great to be back up and I think that the lads are of a right age to really have a cut off it, if the players and the club have a go. Maybe the last time, we didn’t give it as good a shot as we could have.

“We’ve a league final and the Munster club championship to face first so we’ll see how that goes.”