Setanta beat Knights in Winter League clash
SETANTA and Castletown Knights clashed at Muirhevnamor in last Sunday’s North Louth Winter League fixture. When both teams met earlier in the season it ended up with the Knights winning the contest by 3 goals to 2.
The match started with Setanta having a large portion of the overall ball possession and within 15 minutes they received their first chance when S. Mulligan crossed the ball into the Castletown danger area were the ball met the head of the Setanta midfielder D.Tuite who misguided his header and sent the ball high and wide.
Shortly after this Setanta got a second chance when C. Leddy stepped up to take a penalty after he was taken down inside the box. He confidently converted the chance to put the home team ahead.
Minutes later M. Grimes was taken down just inches outside the Setanta box and the referee-gave a free kick to Castletown. C. Grimes stepped up and fired the kick just wide off the post.
Shortly after this R. Cooney had a chance to level the game when a cross from S. White found him in the box but the Setanta goalkeeper P. O’Hagan reacted very quickly and smothered the ball to avert any danger.
Then ten minutes before half time C. Jamison nearly got the equaliser when he rifled a shot from twenty five yards out which smashed against the Setanta crossbar and the defence led by M. Vaglica averted the danger from the rebounded ball.
Halftime in Muirhevnamor, Setanta 1, Castletown 0.
The second half started with Setanta being the more dominant of the two teams but could not take advantage by creating any meaningful chances until about 15 minutes into the half when D. Tuite made a run from the midfield unopposed and fired a shot from just outside the eighteen yard box which forced R. McCourt to make a fantastic save.
In spite of this the rebound fell to a Setanta attacker whose shot was blocked by E. McCabe in the Castletown defence. After this Castletown became the aggressor while continually holding onto a large portion of the overall possession.
However Setanta continually looked very dangerous on the counter attack creating numerous chances but failed to score until a badly cleared ball by the Castletown defence fell to D. Tuite inside the Knights box.
He then nicely converted the chance past R. McCourt. Castletown continued to pile on the pressure until the end of the game fighting to get back into the fixture but it wasn’t to be and the contest finished Setanta 2 Castletown Knights 0.
In other games on Sunday Heynestown beat Glen United 4-2, Carlingford got the better of Ramparts 3-0, and Ravensdale put 6 past Faughart in a 6-2 win.
There is a full list of matches scheduled for this coming Sunday: Greenfield v Haynestown; Ramparts v Faughart; Carlingford v Ravensdale; Glen v Castletown; Edentubber v Setanta.