Greedy Gers ‘eight’ Lourdes alive in Cup
RANGERS 8 LOURDES CELTIC 0
RANGERS warmed up for their second division title defining clash with leaders Kells-Blackwater next Sunday with a runaway win over opponents in mid table in the grade below them.
Still it wasn’t a tie that they would have regarded as a formality, seeing as Lourdes were the only team to beat them at home last season in their successful title march from the third division. Also they hadn’t played in a fortnight.
But as it transpired their passage to the quarter-final of the Kilmessan Shield couldn’t have been much easier and was virtually assured by the break on Sunday at Glenmuir Park.
This was thanks to a first-half hat-trick by Anto McLaughlin, who also set–up Barry Carr to make it four nil at the break.
It was quite a way for McLaughlin to break his duck, not having scored this season prior to this match, and with mission accomplished his manager Wayne Conroy could afford to take him off to rest ahead of the big match with Kells.
Carr then went on to complete his hat-trick, one of many that he has chalked up for the side.
He and partner TJ Murtagh and Shaun O’Connor separately set up McLaughlin to score three almost identical tap-in goals in the first 45 minutes, with the mid-fielder freed inside the Lourdes six yard box.
McLaughlin then returned the compliment for Carr who lobbed the Lourdes goalkeeper from 30 yards.
It took Rangers a while to get going again in the second-half, but Gavin Gaffey made it five nil on 65 minutes with a powerful shot from just inside the Lourdes 18 yard box.
Carr then headed in a cross from partner Murtagh from inside the six yard box before he raced clear and as the goalkeeper advanced he slide the ball under him to complete his hat-trick ten minutes from time.
Murtagh was rewarded for all his hard work by notching the team’s final goal. Partner Carr supplied the assist with a cross which Murtagh took down and fired to the net from just inside the 18 yard box. RANGERS: Thomas Mulvey, Brian McCloskey (Thomas Duffy), Padraig Brown (Shane O’Sullivan), Jimmy Byrne, Stephen Begley, Shaun O’Connor, Anto McLaughlin (Gerard Collins), Michael Bergin, Keith Harmon, Gavin Gaffey, Barry Carr, TJ Murtagh.