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The future captain of Manchester United and Ireland would surpass Matthews, although with the help of a fortunate deviation.
“He was extremely lucky, between you and me,” says the goalkeeper of that goal.
“I had it all the time until he cut the inside of [our defender’s] ankle and went in the opposite direction. ”
Keane, of course, was only 19 years old at the time and was far from the finished article that would earn all available club honors in the decade and a half to come.
Matthews recalls that the Corkman played well in the game, “but he was not exceptional at the time, but he was only young” and “slimmer and lighter” than the player we would become once he physically matured.
“I remember Pete built it pretty well. Pete knew everyone in school football and [Keane] He was playing internationally at the underage level and I remember him commenting on Roy Keane and the way he talked about Roy Keane, we all knew this young man was special, “he says.
“At the time, he was coming and going to Forest, so we weren’t sure if he was going to play [for Cobh] which added uncertainty.
“They told us it was very, very good, but they also told us that he had finished in Forest and would not be returning.”
However, Keane’s goal would not be enough for Cobh, as San Francisco set a dream semi-final date against the Irish League royalty in the form of bohemians, a tie that would take place in Tolka Park.
The Bohs were overwhelming favorites when entering the game, but Matthews regards them as “the elephant in the room who [St Francis] he had been watching the whole time “during his cup race.
“Basically we were looking to get one of the big guns and the big gun at the time was going to be Bohemian or Shamrock rover, so they were in our sights so there was a case of wanting to get them and the belief was there, too,” he says. He adds that his own training methods and the good level of the Leinster Senior League at the time gave them an extra boost and meant that there was no sense of inferiority complex.
Anyway, it would have to be a back-to-the-wall performance for San Francisco and it happened.
Matthews was peppered with shots and efforts to contend through the 90 minutes while keeping a clean sheet in the 1-0 victory.
“I remember leaving the field completely exhausted,” he recalls.
“The noise level in the dressing room was huge and I was sitting there and it was not part of it. I looked at Martin Kerr and he was just as exhausted as I was.”
“When I look back at the game itself and talk to Martin, it was one of those games where he, in the middle and me in goal, couldn’t take a second to get out of what was happening.”
“We were very tight throughout the game and everything Bohs did could end in a shot on goal.”
“Normally in a game at the level that we were used to playing every week, we would slide through it and cope well. But with this, there was high sense all the time. Every time they got the ball, if there was for me and the ball was going into them, it was rolled up and I knew there was something coming at the end of this and they only needed an inch. ”
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