Carlow’s New Oak Boys too strong for Carnew men

CARNEW AFC NEW OAK BOYS 1 7

CARNEW made a swift and painful exit from the Leinster Junior Cup on Sunday in the Back Alley when Carlow kingpins New Oak Boys put them to the sword in emphatic fashion.

Arriving an hour before tip-off and going through their preparations like a team intent on making progress, the Carlow Town side were facing a Carnew team who were lining out without the likes of Sean Murphy and Dan Nolan and who have been enduring something of an unsettled spell of late.

New Oak are a formidable side in the Carlow league and currently sit three points clear at the top of the Premier division, a league they won last season along as part of a double and the reason for those achievements became clear from the second referee David Jameson sounded the whistle for the beginning of this game on a bitterly cold morning in Carnew.

The visitors were extremely efficient and wickedly capable of moving the ball sweetly on the deck while their set-piece delivery was exceptional for the most part.

Carnew fully understood the task they were facing but with home advantage and that renowned Carnew spirit they were never going to be pushovers once disaster didn’t strike at any stage.

However, the home side were to be hit by several sucker punches ranging from an OG in the opening half, losing their goalkeeper to injury after an accidental collision with his own defender, and turning around for the second half with the wind picking up and the rain starting to fall in their faces.

There were nine minutes on the clock when New Oak Boys opened their account through David ‘Bisto’ Keating who got his head to a delicious corner from the excellent Dean Kelly and finished home from close range.

Carnew were competing with the Carlow men in the early stages and were probing as best they could with Cillian Gilligan faced with a formidable defence but Brendan McCrea and Conall McCrea were working hard trying to supply him with ball.

However, the Carnew men never really threatened the New Oak goal in that opening half aside from a wicked free-kick from Brendan McCrea. At the other end Nathan Murphy was busy and proved more than capable to whatever was thrown his way except for the head of his defender Jonathan Smyth when they both collided on the line as they tried to keep out a New Oak goal. Murphy sustained serious injuries to his teeth and had to leave the field and Carnew were awarded a free out which was generous to say the least. Paddy Adare replaced Murphy.

The second disaster struck after 35 minutes when Carnew lost possession in the middle of the park and New Oak sliced them open with a neat ball into space. The backtracking Jonathan Smyth tried to clear the danger but lashed home to the bottom corner of Paddy Adare’s goal for a very unfortunate OG.

That’s how it would stay at the break with Adare saving well from Andrew Wall just before the interval and you couldn’t say that Carnew were dead and buried by any stretch of the imagination.

They needed a goal and they needed one fast and they had a half chance when Dean Grandy got his head to a JJ McCrea corner in the early stages of the second half but his flick skimmed the top of the New Oak crossbar.

Things looked really bleak when substitute David Doyle rounded Paddy Adare and made it 0-3 after 52 minutes but Cillian Gilligan finished with aplomb from close range to bring the home side back into the tie as the elements began turning against them.

Carnew were being badly stretched at the back at this stage and when William Hayes squared to Dean Kelly with only Paddy Adare to beat there was only going to be one winner and the New Oak man finished sweetly to the top corner to effectively finish the game as a contest at 1-4.

New Oak would go on to add three more goals. David Doyle grabbed a second, Willian Hayes and Dean Kelly finished the job before referee David Jameson blew an end to a horrible day at the office for Carnew AFC.