The longest-ever penalty shoot-out in Ireland? Dungarvan win marathon cup tie with 40th spot-kick

"I hope we never have to do it again," said winning manager Tommy Butler.

Has there been a longer penalty shoot-out than this in the history of Irish football?

The Munster Junior Cup fourth-round tie between Dungarvan United and Shannon Town on Sunday needed 40 penalties to separate the sides in a shoot-out that took more than 24 minutes to complete.

All 11 Dungarvan players scored from the spot in the 15-14 victory, with Glaswegian goalkeeper Steffan McCurley the star of the show, scoring two penalties and saving three more.

A pair of youth-team players played a crucial role, too, with 16-year-old substitute Sam Uniacke scoring two penalties to keep Dungarvan alive in the contest and 17-year-old Dominic Melia recovering from a miss first-time around to slot the 40th and final penalty.

"Two days later, I'm still hoarse from it," chuckled Dungarvan manager Tommy Butler. "We'd four chances to win it but we got it right the last time.

I went to the referee after the game to ask 'how many was that?' It must be some kind of record.

What's more, there were two further penalties during the game, with Colin Scanlan converting the equaliser for Shannon before Andrew O'Connor looked to have given the Waterford side the victory late in extra-time. However, Gary O'Connell made it 2-2 four minutes into added time to send the game to penalties.

Butler had that sinking feeling when not only did Dungarvan see their first penalty saved, O'Connor skied their third. But 3-all after the regulation five penalties, Dungarvan found themselves converting a series of sudden-death penalties to keep them in the tie.

With each penalty Shannon missed, though, Dungarvan managed to miss their subsequent chance to win it.

"The last chance? Yeah, I think a water bottle took a spin at that stage! After each one, you were getting ready to celebrate and then it's heartbreak again.

"I must've walked the pitch about three times. I was pacing around the bottom goal. I watched every one of them but from a distance.

"I hope we never have to do it again! I think the supporters were getting bored of it in the end," he adds with a laugh.

It ended just two penalties each shy of entering a third round of penalties, with relief the dominant emotion for the victors: "To go straight into penalties after conceding, we did well to get over the line."

The world record for the longest penalty shoot-out in professional football is 48 penalties, set in the 2005 Namibian Cup when KK Palace beat Civics 17–16, although a 2016 amateur game in the Czech Republic took 52 penalties to separate the sides, 21-20.

For Dungarvan, their victory was a reward for their penalty training, although that was considerably shorter than the shoot-out itself.

"We'd practiced them in training the Tuesday night. We did about ten minutes, one round, if you miss you go home."

As for their last-16 tie against Waterford Crystal, Butler doesn't think they'll need to repeat their penalty practice.

"No, I'd say we're practiced enough for a couple of seasons!"