Rangers power past neighbours
GOREY RANGERS GOREY CELTIC 7 2
GOREY RANGERS powered into the fourth round of the FAI Junior Cup with a comprehensive victory over neighbours Gorey Celtic in Ramstown on Sunday.
The Premier Division side simply had too much pace for their closest rivals, with the scoreline a fair reflection of the gulf between the sides on the day.
It was one of those games where any line felt like a high line for the Celtic defence, with Rangers able to pick their opportunities to slice them to shreds with an array of long, short and mid-range passes.
The only thing that kept the score close in the first-half (3-2 at the interval) was the sheer number of times the hosts were blown for offside. The task of calling offsides for a linesman is tough enough, but it’s almost impossible for a referee to get them close to all correct.
This was especially true because of the superb movement of the Rangers attacking players. Their runs were intelligent and often perfectly timed, and on another day they could have hit double-digits.
They could have been frustrated early on but two low crosses from the right were both dispatched by David Behan.
From almost nowhere Celtic pulled level, as Craig Foster fired home the first at the back post and Owen Byrne notched the equaliser from Maksymilan Deneisiuk’s feed.
Stephen Kinsella controlled Gavin O’Brien’s direct, low ball through the heart of the defence and drilled past John Dunbar.
That’s the way things stayed until the interval, despite Rangers having several chances to add further to their lead.
Gorey Celtic were still in the game at the start of the second-half but nothing much changed on the field.
Rangers made it 4-2 in the 52nd minute when Behan was fouled rounding Dunbar and Ryan Cullen converted the spot-kick.
Eric Quinn slipped Mark Woods into the clear in the 73rd minute and his casually brilliant finish trickled to the bottom corner with Behan - in an offside position prudently leaving it alone to find its own way into the corner.
There was more than a touch of good fortune about Ryan Cullen’s second, as a drilled clearance cannoned off his foot and rebounded through a crowded penalty area into the bottom of the net.
Two minutes from time Joe Bolger did great work on the right, fed the ball back to the edge of the area, and Jamie Howard did the rest, sending a powerful but controlled finish to the net to wrap up Gorey Rangers’ fourth round place in style.