Roundwood win a thriller
Coolboy Rangers edged out
ROUNDWOOD COOLBOY RANGERS 5 4
IN an absolute humdinger of a tie, Roundwood eventually overcame Conor Clinton and Coolboy Rangers thanks to a late penalty in this nine-goal thriller.
Clinton registered all four goals for the visitors – initially to give them a 0-2 lead but two levellers thereafter but singles from Enda Byrne, Niall Sheehan, Ben Kirwan, Conor Fee and John Paul Nolan eventually proved good enough to claim all three points for unbeaten Roundwood.
The previous meeting of this pair threw up a 4-4 draw so perhaps it was no surprise that the goals rained down again on Saturday morning.
The home side started in the better fashion but Coolboy ventured into the opposition half twice in the opening 12 minutes and both occasions resulted in goals for Clinton.
On nine minutes, a ball over the top unlocked the Roundwood defence and Clinton latched onto it to slot it to Cian Timmons’ left and give his side the lead.
Three minutes later, the ball was played into Clinton’s feet and he squeezed through two defenders as if they weren’t there before finding the same corner to double the advantage.
Roundwood were shaken but not stirred and they halved the deficit by the 16h minute.
Niall Sheehan’s impressive forward pass picked out Enda Byrne, playing on the shoulder of the last defender, and he got a touch ahead of Coolboy goalkeeper Patrick Faye which allowed it to creep over the line.
Mark Nolan split the defence for the extremely impressive Conor Fee but his rising shot was tipped over by Faye.
Niall Sheehan tried his luck with a free kick from distance and he was just a couple of inches from finding the bottom corner.
Sheehan would get his goal on the stroke of half time to level matters.
His centre-back partner Ciaran Murphy floated the perfect free kick into the six-yard area and Sheehan just had to glance it home with his forehead to leave it all square at the break.
Having levelled matters right before half-time, Roundwood went ahead right after it.
Ben Kirwan’s shot was about to ripple the net until Callum Mutten blocked it on the line but it was deemed to be a handball offence. Having won the spot kick, Kirwan took it too and drilled it in via the underside of the crossbar.
Clinton was in for his hat-trick just a minute later and yet again, he looked to fire across the body of Timmons but the shot-stopper was alert to it this time and a strong glove averted the danger.
Timmons would be beaten again on 48 minutes though. A well-weighted long ball drew Timmons out but Clinton nudged it past the goalkeeper to make it 3-3.
That arrived in the 48th minute but by the 49th it was 4-3 as patient Roundwood play and an alert fin- ish from Conor Fee saw the home side restore their lead.
Coolboy and Clinton weren’t finished yet though.
He once again used his power to burst through and showed another clinical finish for his fourth of the contest as the sides were level yet again.
The final twist saw Roundwood finally bury Coolboy. JP Nolan was felled in the penalty area and he kept his cool to net from the spot.
With the help of some safe hands from Cian Timmons, Roundwood survived the final 10 minutes to cling on for three points from this roller-coaster.