*Newmarket Celtic goalscorer, Darragh Leahy. Photograph: Joe Buckley
NEWMARKET CELTIC have advanced to the last eight of the FAI Junior Cup for the third time in seven years.
Newmarket Celtic 1
Regional Utd 0
Venue: Dooradoyle Rd, Limerick
AET
Extra time was required to find a winner in this last sixteen tie and even approaching the closing stages with the visitors leading, it looked like penalties would be on the cards, such was the even natured of the contest.
Throughout the afternoon it was Newmarket Celtic that had the better of the scoring opportunities but they found it almost impossible to beat Rob Shier between the posts. Their perseverance was eventually rewarded in the early stages of extra time.
Darragh Leahy who joined Newmarket from Shannon Hibs at the beginning of the season has been one of their main goal threats, he enjoyed a fair tussle with David Cowpar on the Astro turf pitch but scored all the elusive goal which sends Celtic through to the quarter-finals.
With ninety four minutes on the clock, the industrious Conor McDaid won back possession for Newmarket and play was worked out to Davy Lennon on the right wing, the substitute who was beginning to help Celtic exert more pressure swung in an excellent cross which Leahy managed to stick his head to putting enough power on the ball to see it nestle in the bottom left corner of the net.
While Regional Utd may have progressed to the sixth round with an extra time win over Sligo side, Strand Celtic, the all-important goal never materialised for them.
Sixmilebridge’s Filip Mostowy had a glorious chance to put Regional Utd ahead with seven minutes played and were it not for a superbly timed tackle by Harvey Cullinan moments later Paudie Hartigan was on course to rattle the net.
Excellent opening half saves from Shier saw him prevent Eoin Hayes, David McCarthy and Leahy on the double from registering a score. McCarthy seemed to be justified with his frustration on twenty minutes when he was one on one with Shier but the match official pulled play back instead of allowing advantage.
Both sides had goals disallowed in the final three minutes of the first half, Mostowy was ruled offside for the hosts while Leahy was penalised for Celtic, leaving the sides tied 0-0 at the sounding of the half-time whistle.
Shier’s alertness remained pivotal on the restart, picking off saves from Aaron Rudd and Leahy. At this juncture, Celtic were dominating possession but were guilty of poor decisions such as taking too much out of the ball or not showing enough of an offensive hand.
Captain Kieran O’Connell had Regional’s best chance of the second half with seventy one minutes on the clock, his attempt to hit the far right corner of the net was agonisingly close but the effort went just wide. Advantage had been played to allow for this attack with centre half Ethan Fitzgerald subsequently booked, a sign of the pressure felt by the three-man Celtic defence.
For the subsequent ten minutes, momentum swung in favour of the Limerick club but they failed to properly test Shane Cusack with any of these chances meaning it would take extra time to determine the winner.
From the outset of extra time, Newmarket Celtic were on the attack with substitute David Lennon showing what the nineteen time Clare Cup champions can do when they focus more on taking on their opponents.
Lennon swung an early cross which resulted in Shier making a good save from Aaron Rudd while it was the next attack that would see Leahy get his head onto a Lennon cross, the moment that decided the outcome.
Paudie Hartigan came close to equalising, Cusack made an excellent save but the subsequent rebound from Hartigan went over his crossbar. Leahy came close to doubling his tally but Shier got down low to pull off an impressive stop in the final attack of extra time’s first half.
Little chances of note appeared in the second half, Regional’s best fell to captain O’Connell but his header was comfortably dealt with by Cusack. The visitors did their bit to see out the encounter and thus advance to the quarter-finals.
During the purple patch lasting just under a quarter of an hour in the second half when Regional Utd exerted considerable pressure, captain Kieran O’Connell an experienced but towering figure was pushed closer to attack. It seemed that for Sean Russell’s side to hit the target they were going to need one of their lively attackers to feed off O’Connell as they were not threatening considerably when it came to deliveries in high.
Chances arose from O’Connell’s presence while Regional didn’t use danger man Eoin Duff as well as they could, forcing the Shannon man to live off scraps instead of utilising O’Connell in a more forward role, this would have asked more questions of the heart of their opposing defence.
Goalkeeper Rob Shier, a native of Newmarket-on-Fergus and former Celtic netminder was excellent for Regional with O’Connell, Andrew Cowpar, Joey Rushe and David Cowpar also impressing.
Securing a place in the last eight of the FAI Junior Cup is a big plus for Paddy Purcell in his first season as Newmarket Celtic boss. Strong individual displays rather than an excellent collective performance saw them progress on this occasion with Harvey Cullinan blocking countless opposing attacks, Conor McDaid’s workrate in the engine room saw them regain possession time and time again while Darragh Leahy continued to be a nuisance and most importantly put his name on the scoresheet.
With each round comes a stiffer test, Newmarket will know that improvement is essential if they are to have aspirations of making the final four. Moving Cullinan back to the spine of their defence will have to be considered while further strength on the wings and a more attack focused midfield can aid their prospects of keeping an impressive Cup run in motion.
Newmarket Celtic: Shane Cusack, David O’Grady, Ethan Fitzgerald, Harvey Cullinan, Conor McDaid, Aaron Rudd, Jack Kelly, Dean Hegarty, David McCarthy, Eoin Hayes, Darragh Leahy.
Subs: Davy Lennon for Hegarty (83), Cathal Hayes for Rudd (122),
Regional Utd: Rob Shier, Luke Ryan, David Cowpar, Ruairi Casserly, Joey Rushe, Kieran O’Connell, Paudie Hartigan, Filip Mostovy, Andrew Cowpar, Brian O’Connor, Eoin Duff.
Sub: Ewan O’Brien for O’Connor (68).
