The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Scoreless draw kicks off new season
DENNY PREMIER A Dingle Bay Rovers 0 Listowel Celtic 0
THE first game of the new season was played at Mounthawk Park on Friday evening and despite both sides showing plenty of creativity neither side could find the net and the game ended in stalemate.
Both sides were a bit rusty after being idle for a good few weeks but they served up quite and entertaining game that was delicately balanced right up to the final whistle.
In the first half both sides created plenty of chances that could have produced scores, but the second half was a disjointed affair with play very scrappy with little in the way of any decent spell of cohesive football.
Listowel Celtic will be the happier side with the result as they had to battle hard to keep Dingle at bay and they done so with great spirit and character, while Dingle will feel they done enough to secure a win.
An added attraction to this game was the fact that two former Listowel Celtic players Paudie Quinn and Bryan Murphy were playing with Dingle, while Paudie Quinn had to face his brother Aidan who was playing for Listowel. While friction was anticipated in this game it never surfaced its head with the game played in a fine sporting manner which was a credit to both sides.
Dingle had the lion’s share of possession over the 90 minutes, but they were fighting a losing battle up front against a superb Celtic defence where Seamus Keane and Kevin McCarthy was absolutely brilliant.
McCarthy done a superb job shadowing Dingle’s prolific goalscorer Sean Fitzgerald and he held him scoreless, which is no mean achievement by any stretch of the imagination.
Dingle began brightly and had two early chances with Joe Sheehy trying to dink the Celtic goalie, but his effort was not accurate enough and straight afterwards Shane Houlihan had a great chance but he could not finish the ball to the net.
Celtic’s first chance came from a Robbie O’Hanlon corner kick but Seamus Keane headed over the top while a rasper of a shot from outside the box by Aidan Quinn skimmed the crossbar.
Dingle should have gone ahead in the 19th minute when Shane Houlihan was through on goals, but Celtic keeper Darragh O’Shea came out and narrowed the angle and with the ball breaking loose Sean Fitzgerald had a wonderful chance to score but he fluffed his shot under pressure. Celtic then put two chances together but efforts from Cormac Mulvihill and Robbie O’Hanlon did not test the Dingle goalie.
Coming up to the break Dingle put a couple of penetrating attacks together, but Bryan Murphy headed a good chance over the top while Sean Fitzgerald was denied by a tremendous tackle from Kevin McCarthy.
The light began fading early in the second half and in the 51st minute the referee halted play to allow the floodlights to be turned on. Dingle stretched the Celtic defence in the 65th minute with great approach play by Jason Hickson, Shane Houlihan, Joe Sheehy leading to a great save by Celtic keeper Darragh O’Shea and when the ball spilled loose in a comedy of errors it wound up in the back of the net but the goal was not allowed to stand due to an infringement in the goalmouth.
After this both sides began to use their bench and the Celtic side began to tire after all the effort they were putting in to stem the Dingle attackers. Celtic goalie Darragh O’Shea was called into action in the 70th minute and he brought off a great double save to keep his side in the game.
After this both sides seemed to be running out of steam but Dingle continued to attack but they never looked like breaching a rock solid Celtic defence. Dingle will feel they done enough to win the game, but Listowel Celtic must be commended as they stuck to their game plan and came away with a point.
Celtic will be very happy wih the point as they were without Ashley Kelliher, Tommy Keane, Kevin Bambury who are three of their key players.
DINGLE BAY ROVERS: David O’Connor, Jason Hickson, Donnacha Higgins, Michael Flannery, Mark O’Sullivan, Paudie Quinn, Joe Sheehy, Bryan Murphy, Luke Burgess, Shane Houlihan, Sean Fitzgerald
LISTOWEL CELTIC: Darragh O’Shea, Neilius Mackessey, (Paul O’Connor 74 mins), Kevin McCarthy, Seamus Keane, Damien Murphy, Robbie O’Hanlon, (Adam Toomey 75 mins), Cormac Mulvihill, Darren Loughnane, (Eddie Joe Walsh 75 mins), Jo Jo Grimes, (Darragh Sheehy 79 mins), Aidan Quinn, Ian Murphy
REFEREE Adrian O’Shea