Drogheda side are ‘King’ in last-eight showdown
CHORD Celtic booked their place in the Fitzsimons Cup semi-finals on Sunday morning with a 3-1 win at home to Enfield.
The reward for the Drogheda side is a trip to Cavan to face Kingscourt Harps in the last four this Friday, with an 8pm kick-off. The winner of that tie will face OMP United in the decider, which has been provisionally scheduled for Friday November 29th at the MDL grounds in Navan.
Enfield started much brighter and put Chord under pressure early on with their ball retention, but crucially it was Chord who struck first.
A great move down the wing involving Cormac Reid saw him cross and Niall Gates showed great composure to
CHORD CELTIC ENFIELD CELTIC 3 1
square the ball across the face of goal, leaving Pearse Butler with a simple tap-in.
The goal boosted Chord’s confidence and they began to control the middle third.
Jamie King forced a good save following another quick passing move.
Gates then turned goal-scorer as he put Chord 2-0 ahead when Jake Devine’s right wing cross was forced home.
Dylan Delaney was kept busy in the Chord goal, and while he made several good saves Enfield’s pressure finally told just before the break and they halved the deficit by the change of ends.
Eoghan Mulroy struck the crossbar with a long-range effort mid-way through the second half, while King was played through on goal only to be denied by a good save.
Chord couldn’t be blamed for feeling nervy as a third goal didn’t look likely.
However, as they game entered the final few minutes Devine produced another wonderful cross to find King who made no mistake with the finish.
The fact they are facing another Division 1 side in the semi-final will hold no fear for Chord who have already accounted for higher-placed teams on a number of occasions this season.