Livewire Whelehan gives Region I a jolt

It may be too big a statement to suggest that full-time electrician Ray Whelehan has put the spark back into Region I AMA's UEFA Regions' Cup campaign, but the 25-year-old has certainly given the Irish camp a lift.

At the double
The midfielder, who, alongside his day job plays part-time for Wayside Celtic FC in the Leinster Senior League, struck twice in a 3-0 defeat of Savez Gradiška AMA in Group B on Wednesday. The victory in Samobor came two days after Gerry Smith's side opened the final tournament with a 2-0 loss to hotly fancied Spanish outfit Castilla y León AMA which Whelehan admits was a massive disappointment for all concerned.

'Upbeat' camp
"Wednesday's performance only reinforced that we had not done ourselves justice," he told uefa.com. "If we had given that level of performance we might have got a result against Castilla but they were excellent on the day. Yesterday the team was very upbeat after the game despite Castilla's result [4-1 against Kempen AMA]."

Going for goals
Whelehan's double has put him in contention to finish the 2008/09 UEFA Regions' Cup as the competition's leading scorer. Having also struck twice in the Intermediary round, his goals against Savez Gradiška took him to four strikes for the whole tournament, a total only Privolzhie AMA striker Ilia Bolshakov can match. "Finishing as top scorer would be a massive achievement; I'd be absolutely thrilled," he added. "Gerry's obviously in charge and he might make a few changes for Saturday [against Kempen] but if I'm in the team and playing I'll certainly be going for more goals."

Bronze medal
Although Monday's final is beyond Region I due to their inferior head-to-head record against confirmed section winners Castilla, a second-place finish in the group would secure a bronze medal and soften the blow of not reaching the showpiece in Zapresic. "Finishing second wouldn't be bad," said Adrian Walsh, the Region I goalkeeper. "We would obviously like to have qualified but second is not a bad feat. Hopefully we can defeat the Belgian side on Saturday and finish second. We'd be happy enough with that but disappointed all the same not to have won the group."