Younger hat-trick drives Rovers to sweet victory
WICKLOW ROVERS ASHFORD ROVERS
WICKLOW ROVERS began their Shield campaign with an eightgoal thriller of a victory against Ashford Rovers.
A hat-trick from Rovers striker Jordan Younger and goals from Mark Hodgkinson, Tom Hodgkinson and Callum Gibney ensured that their side progressed to the second round of the Premier Shield.
The home side got off the mark on the ninth minute when Callum Gibney was taken down by Ashford defender Luke Moran, striker Jordan Younger stepped up and slotted the penalty home to give his side the lead with under ten minutes played.
Ashford were struggling to keep out the Wicklow Rovers attackers and it wasn’t long before the hosts grabbed their second of the game with Younger getting on the score card again. Younger whipped in a corner on the 15th minute which was defended by the Ashford defence but they could only force the ball out to Younger who took his shot on first time and lobbed keeper Fionn Doyle who had stepped off his line. An excellent goal and technique by the striker.
The goals kept coming for the home side as they had their third goal of the game on the 18th minute with Tom Hodgkinson finding the back of the net. The attacker beat three Ashford defenders before slotting the ball past the Ashford goalkeeper and into the corner of the net. Half time was fast approaching for the away side after they conceded their third of the game and they would have to pull off a great performance in the second half if they wanted to get anything from the game.
Ashford came out with all guns blazing at the start of the second half and quickly grabbed a goal back through a great strike from Luke Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick made a darting run down the right wing beating two Rovers defenders before firing a shot into the bottom corner.
Unfortunately for the away side their hosts just couldn’t stop scoring and added more goals to stop them from making a comeback. Some great build up play between Jordan Younger and Callum Gibney resulted in Gibney grabbing his sides fourth goal of the game, Younger was very unselfish to play in his team mate in on goal as he was on a hattrick himself and could have taken on the goalkeeper himself but decided to play in Gibney who made no mistake.
Mark Hodgkinson scored the best goal of the game on the 55th minute with a thunderous long range effort from 40 yards out that flew into the bottom corner and gave the keeper absolutely no chance. Jordan Younger wrapped up his hattrick on the 58th minute which was well deserved as he was the focal point of every Wicklow Rovers attack.
The away side did manage to grab a goal back in the last minute of the game with a great goal from Fionnan Denver as he lobbed the keeper from the half way line, a great spot by the striker to see the goal keeper off his line.
It was a great performance from Wicklow Rovers who start their shield campaign with a 100 per cent record, whilst Ashford will feel disappointed about the result overall but should take positives from their second half performance as they fought hard to get something out of the game but its Wicklow Rovers who go onto their second game in the shield with great confidence after this impressive win.
1. Conor Luddy,
2. Adam Kearns, 3. Tiernan O’ Brien,
5. Tomas Kennedy, 6. Harry Broxon, 7. Mark Hodgkinson, 8. Callum Gibney, 9. Jordan Younger, 10. Conor Hunter, 11. Ben Carter, 12. Tom Hodgkinson
1. Fionn Doyle, 2. Luke Moran, 3. Shane Sinnott, 4. Josh Nicholls, 5. Evan Gylan, 6. Cormac Mc Grath, 7. Luke Fitzpatrick, 8. Jake Cullen,
9. Ben Kelly, 10. Fionnan Denver, 11. Ben Meade, 12. Dylan Doyle, 13. Aaron Corry, 14. Evan Byrne, 15. Aaron Devlin,
16. Kyle O’ Neill
C. O’ Reilly