Impressive Avonmore power home for Shield joy
AVONMORE FC ARKLOW TOWN 4 1
AVONMORE’S under-13s gained their first silverware of the season on Saturday afternoon as their impressive second half performance secured victory over Arklow Town and confirmed them as the WDSL Community Shield champions.
It was a tight game between the two sides for the first 20 minutes of the game, with both sides having some great opportunities to go in-front early on.
Arklow Town striker Shane Monaghan had a chance on the 14th minute when he went on a great run before going one on one with the Avonmore keeper, but Rhys Magee was alert and came out off his line to force Monaghan into pulling his side wide of the goal.
Avonmore had their own chances early on in the game too, Gavin Cullen and Mark O’ Reilly were combining well in midfield. Cullen dominated the centre of midfield and continuously picked out O’ Reilly upfront who made some great runs into the box.
In the 21st minute, Cullen picked out O’Reilly with a great ball over the Arklow defence, O’Reilly then tried chip the keeper the Arklow shot stopper seen it coming and caught the ball.
Arklow Town were comfortable sitting deep in the first half and then breaking on the counter attack, as their two front men, Shane Monaghan and Jack Devitt, were exceptionally fast.
Avonmore were piling on the pressure late on in the first half, but as Town regained possession they looked to pick out either Monaghan or Devitt to unleash a quick counter attack and it nearly worked on the 34th minute when Devitt went on a great run after the Arklow defence cleared their lines. Devitt cut inside from the right and fired a low shot towards the far post but his shot went just wide which meant at the end of the first half the score was level with it all to play for in the second half.
Avonmore started the second half in the best possible way as they took the lead five minutes after the restart. Mark O’Reilly was again involved as he went on a great solo run before firing the ball past Arklow keeper Dennis O’Reilly to take the lead.
Arklow Town kept fighting back and refused to give up and they almost had an equaliser on the 41st minute with an effort from Rory Curley, but unfortunately his shot was saved by Avonmore shot stopper Rhys Magee.
But the home kept on pushing and they got their reward on the 50th minute mark when Shane Monaghan was played in one on one with the keeper before slotting the ball into the bottom corner; a great finish by the Arklow striker. It was game on at Bridgewater Centre Park with the two sides level on the scoreboard again.
Unfortunately for the Town the score wasn’t level for long as Avonmore took the lead again five minutes later with a goal from left back Oscar Dowling. Dowling had started the attack by picking out a team mate in midfield he then followed the play and arrived in at the back post at the right time to put his side in-front with a great strike on the 55th minute.
Two late goals by Leighton Doran and another from Mark O’Reilly finalised the result for Avonmore with an impressive 4-1 victory.
They dominated the second half taking their chances when they came. Town fought hard to get back into the game after going a goal behind early in the first half, but Avonmore were just too clinical in front of goal and are deserved winners of the Community Shield.