Great day for Jonny
Carnew AFC A and B do battle in honour of legend
CARNEW was the setting for the Jonny Behan Memorial Cup on St Stephen’s Day.
On a bright, brisk, sunny morning the club’s first and second teams played out a thriller in front of the good crowd in attendance.
In a match that was played in a friendly manner on a tough pitch, both teams gave their all in memory of Carnew’s greatest soccer man, Jonny Behan!
Eugene Jordan opened the scoring for the first team with a brilliant finish after some great work from John Kavanagh, and some dodgy defending from Dan Nolan.
It stayed that way until midway through the second half when a controversial penalty was awarded to the second team, which JJ McCrea duly dispatched to make it 1-1, game on as they say.
The second team had their tails up now and a short time later their good fortune was to continue as JJ McCrea found himself in acres of space in the box to finish to the net at the second time of asking.
The first team responded with a barrage of crosses, shots and threw everything bar the kitchen sink at the second team.
It looked like they would hold out, until up stepped the first team’s man of the moment, and Jonny’s son, Jimmy Behan, to fire and unstoppable shot to the corner to make it 2-2, and on the balance of play, parity was well deserved.
No extra time was played so it went to a shoot out with the second team taking the honours that their efforts probably deserved overall. All in all a great day, and occasion in memory of a great man! Plenty of banter was had in McCrea’s bar afterwards.