Rangers’ rewards
NEW ROSS TOWN ‘B’ GOREY RANGERS ‘B’ 1 5
GOREY RANGERS took all three points back north and kept the pressure on league leaders Duncannon with an emphatic four-goal victory over New Ross Town in this Wexford Schoolboys League Under-12 Division 3 tie in New Ross on Saturday.
The Gorey boys were good value for their sizeable win and probably would have scored more had it not been for a number of impressive goalkeeping performance by various Town players, all stepping in in the absence of their regular ‘keeper.
There were early signs that Gorey were in fine form. They had the ball in the net within eight minutes, only for James Stafford to rule out Joe Flaherty’s strike for a marginal offside.
However, this did little to crush Rangers’ spirits and they were soon on the attack again, with Cody Lawless sending one well over the bar as Gorey searched for an opener.
It would be unfair to say that it was all one-way traffic. With impressive defensive performances by Charlie McFred and Olan Delaney keeping Gorey at bay, Khyde Morris broke in behind the defence at the other end, only for Cayden Kenny to recover in the nick of time.
Eventually Gorey did break the deadlock when a 25-yard wonder-strike from Steven Kavanagh looped over Keelan Ryan and dipped under the crossbar to give the away side the lead.
New Ross then responded superbly. Brian Minihan advanced the ball before feeding Ben Chapman who saw his effort from close range well saved before Denny Bookle buried the rebound into the bottom left corner as the home side drew level.
They didn’t stay deadlocked for long, as Flaherty capitalised on a mix-up in the Ross defence and finished low past McFred to put Gorey back in front.
It was two for Flaherty before half-time. This time he beautifully chipped the ball over a defender before controlling and finishing confidently into the back of the net.
Flaherty came back out of the blocks flying after the half-time interval too.
He added his side’s fourth and fifth before the 40th minute – both strikes were fired venomously into the net from close range as he secured his hat-trick and his fourth goal of the game within a two-minute time frame.
He had further opportunities to extend Gorey’s lead before the full-time whistle, as did Oisín Moran, but Donal O’Leary had taken over in the Ross nets and he was looking almost unbeatable.
Gorey closed out an impressive 5-1 win with little threat to their own goal. They will need to continue to produce performances like this one to give themselves a shot at the title come the latter end of the season.
New Ross Town: Keelan Ryan, Brian Minihan, Olan Delaney, Khyde Morris, Charlie McFred, Ben Chapman, Donal O’Leary, Adam Kelly, Denny Bookle.
Gorey Rangers: Tom Leonard, Cayden Kenny, Kyle Fagan, Ben Furlong, Joe Flaherty, Steven Kavanagh, Cody Lawless, Odhran Morris, Kian Steadmond. Subs. (rolling) - Oisín Moran, Nick Marcenko, Daniel Lynch, Balazs Gyurko.
Referee: James Stafford.