BRIDGE RUN RIOT
Rovers in control of two-way battle
BRIDGE ROVERS 8 NEW ROSS TOWN 0
BRIDGE ROVERS held serve in their two-way battle with Gorey Celtic at the top of the Wexford and District Schoolboys Soccer Under-16 Division 4 table, beating New Ross Town in Bogside on Saturday.
The Castlebridge boys have lost just one game this season, 2-1 to their title rivals back in October, and with a re-match upcoming before the end of the season it was critical that they moved to the top spot while Celtic were inactive.
In truth, Rovers have rarely been tested apart from that early season loss and this was no different. They look like a side who should be playing a division or two higher and simply had too much quality for their New Ross opponents.
As early as the fourth minute the hosts took the lead.
Latching on to a defensive error, Thomas O’Connor picked up a loose ball and curled an unstoppable shot over Dylan Sinnott to the Town net.
The visiting goalkeeper made a couple of solid stops to keep it at one until goalscorer O’Connor flipped the ball left in the 13th minute to Darragh Malone who sent a sublime curled finish to the top right corner of Sinnott’s goal.
Two became three moments later when Hugh Manley’s left wing cross was volleyed to the net by Gloudy McKenzie.
Town’s best chances of the half were from dead-balls, as Craig McDonald fired one over in the 16th minute while Dawid Mlodzianowski drilled wide later in the half.
Eight minutes before half-time O’Connor got in too easily onto Manley’s throw-in and fired home number four.
It was five-nil at the interval thanks to a second well-taken goal by McKenzie following a powerful run through the middle.
After being picked out by McKenzie, Evan Carr chipped Sinnott to make it 6-0 three minutes after half-time.
Soon it was seven, with Carr playing the provider role for Malone to poke home his second goal.
A nasty lower leg injury to Kevin Carr in the 57th minute delayed the game for 13 minutes.
Realistically, with the match over as a contest and an ambulance on the way, the sensible decision would have been to end the game there an then.
However, on it went and Dylan O’Neill completed the scoring with a close-range finish four minutes from the end of normal time.
Other than the sight of the paramedics attending to the injured Carr next to the field while play continued, the only other remarkable thing about the 13 minutes of added time was a string of stunning saves by substitute Town goalkeeper Max Hoff that stopped the hosts hitting double figures.
Bridge Rovers: Mickey Lacey; Ciarán Ratigan-O’Neill, Liam Lacey, Adam O’Leary, Hugh Manley; Tiernan Carr, Aaron Jackman; Elliot Izenosu, Gloudy McKenzie, Thomas O’Connor; Darragh Malone (capt.). Subs. (rolling) - Evan Carr, Kevin Carr, Dylan O’Neill.
New Ross Town: Dylan Sinnott; Jamie Butler, Tomás Aspel, Adam Williams, Raymond Roche (capt.); Joshua Carroll-Fernandes, Craig McDonald, Sam Sutton, Josh Wall; Kyran Mylett, Dawid Mlodzianowski. Subs. (rolling) - Mikolaj Banasik, Dustin De Perio, Max Hoff, Marcin Kacprzak.
Referee: Stephen Burke.