Tremendous Town complete the treble
ARKLOW TOWN 2 WICKLOW ROVERS 1
ARKLOW Town A clinched the treble on Friday night when they lifted the WDSL Premier Shield with a hard fought victory over Wicklow Rovers at Ballygannon.
On what was a humid evening at the Rathdrum venue, both sides made a nervy enough start to this contest, that was played in front of a decent enough crowd.
Wicklow Rovers probably made the brighter start to the contest and for the opening minutes, they looked the hungrier of the two sides and they opened the scoring five minutes in.
A dangerous ball, whipped in from the near corner flag by Willie Woods dipped in via the crossbar and all Chris Boucher in the town goal could do was look on and wonder how exactly it found its way in.
What followed was scrappy enough at times, and both sides were relying on counter attacking football to carve out half chances.
Woods could have put Rovers two up with a carbon copy of his first goal on 20 minutes but this time it bounced over the crossbar, and that seemed to wake Arklow Town up.
They grew into the game after this with Louie Harris-Hingerty looking particularly dangerous running with the ball.
Rovers went into the break with a narrow lead but you got the feeling that Arklow were going to come out all guns blazing for the second half.
And that was exactly the case with the introduction of Damien Aigbologa adding an injection of speed to the Town’s attack.
Aigbologa’s speed on the left started to cause problems for the Rovers back four and one of his runs 13 minutes into the second half helped Arklow equalise.
He blasted up the left hand side before he was taken down on the edge of the box. The referee awarded a free, despite claims for a penalty.
Danny Byrne sent in a dangerous looking cross from the resulting free and Ben Somers met it beautifully, blasting it past Conor Luddy.
Rovers, to their credit, were not going to go down without a fight, and they probably should have retaken the lead 50 minutes in but Conor Hunter’s headed effort just sailed over the crossbar.
Both sides tried hard to break the deadlock for the remainder of the game but both side’s defences held strong and extra time beckoned.
Arklow went in search of the winner and they nearly had it with the first attack of the period.
Niall Dempsey played in a great ball to Sommers but his shot produced an excellent save from Luddy.
They did nose ahead again five minutes into extra time thanks to their captain Harris-Hingerty, who was probably the star man on the night for them.
An excellent pass from Dempsey found its way to Harris-Hingerty and he blasted his shot into the left hand corner of the net.
Rovers tried hard for the remainder to find a goal to take it to penalties but they couldn’t break down a stubborn Arklow defence, who were deserved winners on the night.
Both sides deserve plenty of credit for contributing to what was an excellent final. It has been a dream season for the Town but Rovers are a decent side as well and will surely be back hungrier next season.
Arklow Town: Chris Boucher, Luca Ghiurcan, Danny Byrne, Peter Buddy, Niall Dempsey, Thomas Burke, Louie Harris-Hingerty, Mikey Merrigan, Ben Sommers, Patrick O’Halloran.
Wicklow Rovers: Conor Luddy, Jack Ryan, Luke Dunne, Thomas Kennedy, David Sutton, Conor Hunter, Tiernan O’Brien, Callum Gibney, Willie Woods, Sean O’Meara.