‘Four’midable Carroll knocks spots off Quay

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CIARAN Carroll helped himself to four goals - including three penalties - as Newfoundwell stepped up their Premier Division title charge with this impressive win at Quay Celtic on Friday night.

However, the Drogheda side had an early scare when Quay scored first inside five minutes amid some controversy. A corner kick was half-cleared by the ‘Well defence before being driven back through a crowd of bodies, and as Bryan Smith went down to save it a referee’s assistant signalled the ball had crossed the line, with the goalkeeper insisting it hadn’t.

However, any sense of injustice was soon forgotten as the away side were back on level terms in the 10th minute. Carroll latched onto a Brian Kermode pass and got a touch on the ball before the advancing keeper John Rogers brought him down for a penalty.

The netminder was shown a yellow card and Carroll dusted himself down before converting the spot kick - 1-1.

A few minutes later Carroll ghosted into the box again and this time he was taken down illegally by Stefan McKevitt, and once more the striker got up and tucked away his second penalty of the night.

Stephen Murphy and Emmet Carolan - playing his final game before returning to Drogheda United Under-19s - were rocks at the back for ‘Well and they forced Quay into mistakes by pressing high up the pitch. However, their third goal was simplicity itself as Carl Brannigan beat his man on the wing and crossed for Carroll who tucked the ball away to complete a first-half hat-trick.

The Drogheda men were cruising at this stage, but right on the half-time whistle some sloppy defence allowed Quay to grab a second goal - another penalty - to give them fresh hope.

On the restart the Dundalk side were on top for the first 10 minutes, but their prospects nosedived when Rogers came well out of his goal to win a foot race with Carroll and knock the ball out of play. As Carroll tried to take a quick throw, with the keeper out of position, the netminder grappled with the striker and the referee had no option but to send off the Quay player for a second yellow card offence.

Substitute Craig O’Connor, who was lively throughout his time on the pitch swung in a cross for Brannigan to make it 4-2, and another sub - Martin Kelly - was bundled over for yet another penalty which the clinical Carroll converted to complete the scoring.