Enniskillen Rangers celebrate after a second successive Junior Cup triumph
Irish Junior Cup final hero Jason Keenan is still struggling to comprehend the magnitude of what he and his Enniskillen Rangers team-mates have achieved.
A year on from a disastrous season with Enniskillen Santos that ended in relegation and the club being wound up, Keenan was the toast of Windsor Park after a brilliant brace to hand Rangers back to back Junior Cup titles – just their third in all.
That brought his goal tally to 26 for a remarkable debut season so far under his cousin and player manager Michael Kerr and understandably he was struggling to take it all in.
“Ah it’s just unbelievable, it’s superb. It hasn’t sunk in yet that we were even playing at Windsor Park and we’ve won it,” said the 28-year-old son of club legend Joe who was a star of the 1999 Junior Cup winning Rangers team.
The pair had a warm embrace in the Windsor Park stand after Jason’s man of the match display against Greenisland with another brother Christopher also part of the Rangers squad.
“To get man of the match on top of it, I can’t believe it to be honest, it’s just unreal. Then two bottles of champagne on top of that too! I’ll enjoy those!”
Keenan, pictured left, made no mistake on the biggest stage of all for junior footballers when the chances came his way and, typical of Rangers under Kerr, he had full belief in his abilities. A beautiful glancing header doubled the lead for the holders after a confident first half spot-kick set them on their way.
“I knew rightly if I got a penalty I’d score it because I haven’t missed one all season. I put it where I put it all the time, if you hit a good penalty the goalkeeper is not going to save it,” said Keenan who displayed a workrate to match his finishing skills on Monday, particularly in the second half.
“It was a definite penalty and I thought maybe he could even have been sent off. It was a great cross from Cripper [Christopher Currie] for the second goal too. I thought we were really solid after the first 10 minutes.”
Keenan was quick to bat away any individual plaudits after his final double and was also quick to remember the objectives still remaining for high-flying Rangers.
“It’s just a joint effort from everyone at the club, there’s 20 boys there all working hard, it’s just superb,” said Keenan who must turn his attention to a crucial Division 1 clash with Beragh Swifts this Thursday night – the start of a hectic finale with seven league games in 14 days
“We’re not done yet, if we win our seven league games it could be a double and it would be great to get that now.”
Who’d bet against them?