Muirhevnamor just Smith-en with strike duo
THE Muirhevnamor bandwagon keeps rolling on with a high scoring win over their Leinster Senor League opponents stretching their unbeaten run and booking their place in the third round of the FAI Junior cup.
The County Meath side failed like every other team since before Christmas last in trying to defeat the North East League cup holders despite making a flying start at the astro turf pitch at Muirhevnamor on Friday night, as the home side exhibited some really first class finishing with the new partnership of Billy Smith and his namesake Martin showing that they are going to take some stopping this season, while the wily Mickey O’Kane was at the heart of a magnificent second half performance.
In a whirlwind start to the tie the visitors took the lead, but Brendan Hughes struck twice inside five minutes to enable the home side overtake them and barely a quarter of an hour on the clock.
They established a firm grip on the match by stretching their advantage to 4-1 inside the first 15 minutes of the second-half, with two sparkling goals, masterfully taken by Martin Smith and Mickey O’Kane.
Smith coolly lobbed the ball to the net despite the Ratoath goalkeeper getting a hand to it from the edge of the penalty box at the end of a sweet move started inside the home half
Then O’Kane with the help of Smith dispossessed a Ratoath defender on the edge of the box and delightfully chipped the ball into the top corner of the net.
Goalkeeper Michael Cooney Billy Smith congratulates Brendan Hughes after scoring his second goal against Ratoath. was uncharacteristically to blame as Ratoath reduced the deficit, dithering on the ball which was taken from him and slotted into an empty net.
However, it took Colin Finan just two minutes to make his mark on being introduced to restore his side’s three goal lead, with another cracking finish, hitting Billy Smith’s pass first time inside the penalty box.
Cooney made amends for his slip up with the first of two brilliant saves which allowed Tiarnan Mulvenna, another of four home substitutes introduced in the second-half to further increase Muirhevnamor’s lead. O’Kane knocked the ball down in the pen- alty box for his teammate to hit a terrific strike that hit the underside of the crossbar and dropped down and crossed the goal line off the helpless goalkeeper, who had a fine game for the losers.
The home side could afford to ease up and conceded a third goal eight minutes from the end, and only for a brilliant spot-kick save by Cooney, Ratoath would have closed the gap further in stoppage time. MUIRHEVNAMOR: Michael Cooney, Brian Begley, Adrian Rafferty, Philip Duffy, Nathan Murphy(Niall Hearty 70), Thomas Mc Shane, Cody Magill, Brendan Hughes ( Tiernan Mulvenna 56), Mickey O’Kane, Martin Smith (Colin Finan 63), Billy Smith (Vinny Smith 73).