Castleisland weather storm to stay on top

DENNY PREMIER A

Castleisland 1 Killarney Athletic 0

STORM Dennis played havoc with fixtures on Sunday with only three games surviving the storm and one of these was abandoned at half time due to the adverse weather conditions.

The big Premier A game between Premier A table toppers Castleisland and Killarney Athletic did go ahead at storm swept Georgie O’Callaghan Park on Sunday morning and weather conditions were horrendous for the big showdown.

The game was lucky to survive the 90 minutes as the referee Anthony Morrison had to stop play twice when the wind escalated during heavy downpours.

With wind, hail stone and sleet to their backs Athletic started strongly and should have gone ahead early on when a blocked shot fell in the path of William Courtney who was clean through on goals but he was denied by a tremendous save by Castleisland goalkeeper Stephen Bartlett who pushed the ball around the post.

From the resulting corner kick it took a great goal line clearance from Padraic O’Connor to prevent an Athletic goal.

Down the other end Castleisland were unlucky not to go ahead when Stan Divane hit the crossbar and the follow up shot was brilliantly saved by the outstretched leg of Athletic keeper Gary Sugrue.

Despite the deplorable conditions the sides were serving up a very entertaining game and it was scoreless at half time.

The second half was very evenly contested with scoring chances at a premium and when conditions deteriorated further it looked as if a draw was on the cards.

Castleisland looked in trouble in the 63rd minute when they were down to 10 players when Colin McCarthy was sent off. However, instead of hindering their chances in the game this incident seemed to galvanise the home side.

The goal that won the game came in the 73rn minute when debut boy Shane O’Connor set up Tommy Feehan and he finished with aplomb.

Athletic pressed for an equaliser after this and despite a few scares and shots from distance they never looked like scoring.

With Kevin O’Mahony pulling the strings at midfield for Castleisland they also looked very dangerous on the break

At the end of the day it was a bit of skill and intelligent play that produced the winning goal for Castleisland in a tough physical game.

Both sides did exceptionally well to serve up an evenly contested game in the most testing of conditions. To that end, referee Anthony Morrison handled the game very well.

This was a big win for Castleisland and keeps them a point ahead of Killarney Celtic at the top of the table.

Killarney Athletic have a couple of games in hand and if they win these they will be back in title contention again.

MEK Galaxy 2 Killarney Celtic 10

AFTER recording their first win of the season the previous week MEK Galaxy faced a tough task against a formidable Killarney Celtic side.

As the final scoreline indicates the sides were oceans apart in the scoring department with Celtic winning the game in a canter

Shane Lowth (2), Wayne Sparling (2), Matt Keane (2), John McDonagh, Stephen McCarthy, Danny Roche and Padraig O’Connor scored for the winners.

Tadhg Fleming and John Foley scored for MEK with assists from John Foley and Bogdan Pop.

Best for MEK were Shane O’Sullivan, Joe Donovan and Laurence Byrnes.

MEK did enjoy a number of good spells during the game but its back to the training field and prepare for the next game.

This win keeps Celtic breathing down the next of table toppers Castleisland just a point behind with a game in hand.

TOP: The Castlegregory FC that played Strand Road FC in Division 1A at Mounthawk Park before the game was abandoned due to severe weather, and ABOVE, the Strand Road FC team. Photos by Domnick Walsh