Goal flurry sees off-colour Ardee through

MAYNOOTH TOWN ARDEE CELTIC 2 3

GARY Malone’s Ardee Celtic advanced to the third round of the FAI Under-17 Cup after a hard-fought win in Maynooth on Sunday morning.

Ardee started brightly enough against the NDSL outfit, but it was the home side that hit the front and they held that lead to half-time.

Needing to show a lot more urgency, Ardee upped their intensity in the second period and within nine minutes had drawn level, with Caolan McCabe showing great tenacity to elude his marker and beat the opposing keeper.

That goal gave the visitors a huge boost and although never rising to their usual standards, they did manage to find the front, albeit with a good bit of fortune.

It came on 64 minutes when a long kickout from Hugh Murphy dropped over the defence and a hurried clearance smashed off the lively Cathal Fleming and ended up in the Maynooth net.

It was Ardee who got the all-important fourth goal of the tie on 75 minutes when Fleming put McCabe through on goal to score his second of the match.

Maynooth came back again and almost pulled one back from a corner, with Murphy diving to his left to save, but time was almost up when they eventually halved the deficit by converting a penalty.

ARDEE CELTIC: Hugh Murphy, Eoin McCloskey, Seidis Hyseni, Ben Quaile, Caolan McCabe, Dean Burns, Oisin McKenna, Cathal Fleming, Declan McKeever, Peter Dickson, Aaron McGowan, Conor Walsh, Evin Quinn, Ciaran Russell.