Buncrana Hearts paired with St Michael's of Tipperary in FAI Junior Cup last eight

Buncrana Hearts have landed a big one in the last eight of the FAI Junior Cup with Tipperary kingpins and 2019 competition winners, St Michael’s, set to visit Castle Park. 

Gary Duffy’s side made their own small piece of history at the weekend - reaching the quarter-final stages for the first time ever with that dramatic 2-1 over Salthill Devon.

The contest appeared like it would be going to extra-time but in the dying seconds Eoin Murphy proved to be the hero for the hosts as he grabbed a late, late winner. 

Boss Duffy admits it’s a special achievement for the club and that he was delighted to see Murphy make the crucial difference right at the end. 

“Eoin Murphy, his dad is a Hearts man, his granddad was a Hearts man so they are a huge Hearts family. As a young local lad, you were delighted to see him pop up and score the winner. 

“He’s a great fella. And listen, you always want to get the job done inside the 90 minutes. It didn’t look like that was going to happen so Eoin’s intervention was huge on a number of levels. 

“There is a great buzz around the town, there was great support at the game. The result was the only thing that mattered”.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, just after the draw had been made, Duffy said to have secured another home tie was brilliant. But, he adds, attention needs to instantly turn back to domestic matters as they look to regain ground at the top of the Jackie Crossan Premier Division. 

Hearts currently trail leaders Moville Celtic by eight points but crucially, they have three games in hand on their title rivals. 

“The draw has just been made - we’ve got St Michael’s at home,” explained Duffy. “But all that can wait for the time being. We need to come down very quickly. We’ve a very important league game against Cockhill this weekend. So we have to get the heads back on it pretty quickly.

“Don’t get me wrong, the FAI Cup is the biggest cup we’re ever going to play in. And we’re going very well in it. But we have fallen some games behind in the league because of that. 

“Your domestic competitions, those are the things you probably pay most attention to. The league is a really big one. So we want to turn attentions now back to that. We have Cockhill at home on Sunday and we have to start preparing for that now”. 

Hearts’ FAI Junior Cup quarter-final clash with St Michael’s has been pencilled in for Sunday, March 5.