Dingle stun Avenue in Junior Cup

Dingle Bay Rovers 2 Avenue United (Clare) 0

Dingle Bay Rovers reached dizzy heights at Mounthawk Park on Sunday with a fantastic win over Clare side Avenue United which puts them through to the last 64 in the national competition and an appointment with Tipperary side Clonmel Celtic.

The visitors are regarded as one of the best junior sides in the country but they played second fiddle to the rampant West Kerry side who displayed great passion and desire.

Their defence was as solid as a rock while midfield was the launchpad for their attacks with Joe Sheehy, Luke Burgess and young Joe Kennedy in sparkling form while up front Sean Fitzgerald and Sean O’Connor were a constant threat.

Avenue were restricted to efforts from long distance and Dingle keeper Thomas Sayers had very little to do outside of a good save early in the game.

Dingle had the ball in the net after just 30 seconds when Luke Burgess set up Sean O’Connor but he was just offside and the goal did not stand.

Dingle keeper Thomas Sayers was called into action in the seventh minute and he made a fine save to deny Jamie Roche.

Avenue then put another attack together with Colin Smith laying the ball off to Roche but he missed the target from 15 yards.

Now Dingle were playing great free flowing football and they got the goal they deserved in the 23rd minute after a raid down the right flank Luke Burgess showed great vision to spot the run of Sean O’Connor and he rifled the ball to the net from 10 yards.

Just before half time Avenue got a free kick just outside the box but Jamie Roches shot was high and over.

Early in the second half Dingle got a free kick in a good position but Sean O’Connor’s effort came off the wall for a corner kick.

Sean Fitzgerald latched on to the corner which was taken by Joe Sheehy but his headed effort went wide.

Avenue then got a free kick in a promising position in the 74th minute but Colin Smith was unable to find the target.

Dingle put clear daylight between the sides in the 75th minute with an excellently engineered goal.

Joe Sheehy started the move linking up with sub Garreth Hickey Brosnan and his effort from just inside the box was parried by the Avenue goalie Barry Ryan but Sean O’Connor was following up and he smashed the ball to the back of the net in emphatic fashion.

After this Dingle slowed down the pace of the game and made a number of substitutions.

Avenue had nothing left in the tank after this and Dingle should have scored a third goal near the end when Sean Fitzgerald was in one on one with the Avenue goalie but he just lost control of the ball as he was about to pull the trigger.

This was a great performance by Dingle and in this kind of form they will go into the last 64 game against Clonmel Celtic with plenty of confidence and self belief. DINGLE BAY ROVERS: Thomas Sayers, Jason Hickson, Donnacha Higgins, Mark O’Sullivan, Michael Flannery, Michael Begley, Joe Sheehy, Luke Burgess, Joe Kennedy (Garreth Hickey Brosnan, 70 mins), Sean O’Connor (Adam McAuliffe, 84 mins), Sean Fitzgerald (Gearoid MacGearalt). AVENUE UNITED: Barry Ryan, David Herlihy (Dean D’Auria 72 mins), Sean Flanagan (Adam Green, 72 mins), Kaylen O’Loughlin, Eamon O’Reilly, Colin Smith, Sean Doherty, Patrick McDaid, Ronan Kerins, (Paul Roche, 76 mins), Jamie Roche, Mark Roche. REFEREE: Kevin O’Regan