Newtown United rejoice after Charlie Bishop joy
NEWTOWN UNITED 3 SHAMROCK CELTIC 1
WICKLOW ROVERS hosted the Charlie Bishop Cup final last Sunday as Newtown United convincingly overcame Shamrock Celtic at White Gates to become newly crowned Charlie Bishop Cup champions.
Both teams had a wonderful turn out of supporters with more than 100 people in attendance at Whitegates.
Shamrock Celtic winger Anto Byrne set the tempo and the physicality of the game right from kick off when he went in hard with a challenge on Neill Martin in the first minute.
The tackle got the Shamrock Celtic and Newtown side-line very excited for what turned out to be a great cup final day.
Newtown’s Dillion Carthy began making chances for Newtown as he looked to put his mark on this Cup final.
The midfielder was chasing down every ball and running at the Shamrock Celtic defence. The Newtown man almost set up Ryan Cahill on a number of occasions early on but the Celtic defence stood firm.
Carthy and Cahill were combining time and time again and finally got their reward on the 21st minute when Carthy made a lighting run down the left wing before beating two Celtic defenders and squaring the ball across goal to Cahill who couldn’t miss.
It was obvious that Cahill and Carthy were going to cause problems for the Shamrock Celtic defence all day with their lighting pace.
Shamrock Celtic winger Anto Byrne was very unlucky not to have his first goal of the game after a solo run down the wing was followed up by a strike from 40 yards out hit the bar and went over, much to the delight of the Newtown goalkeeper Lee Fitzpatrick who thought it was going well wide.
Unfortunately that was the only real threatening attempt on goal from Celtic in the first half.
Newtown should have had a penalty on the half hour mark as Dessie Waters was tripped in the box but referee decided to wave play on and was cleared by the Shamrock defence. Celtic finished the first half a goal down with a lot to do in the second half to compete with a confident Newtown side.
Five minutes into the second half, Anto Byrne was again causing problems for the Newtown defence with another solo effort.
The winger won a header and played the ball back to Aiden O’Neill who played the ball back over the top for the winger to run onto.
Byrne went one on one with the keeper but his shot flashed across goal and went narrowly wide. Byrne did everything right apart from the finish.
Newtown’s confidence started to fade as they were confronted with attack after attack from their opponents and in the sixth minute they broke through their strong defence.
Anto Bynre this time turning as provider as he made a great run down the right wing beating two Newtown defenders before crossing the ball to Stephen Morris who couldn’t miss. Almost identical to Newtown’s opening goal. It was now game on at White Gates.
Newtown’s management were pleading with the players to stop trying to force the second goal and after a nervy 10 minutes United started to play with confidence again.
Dillion Carthy was fouled in the penalty area by Noel Mc Veigh
on the 80th minute which gave the referee no choice but to point to the spot. Carthy converted the penalty with a cheeky panenka chip which left the goalkeeper diving the wrong way. Cool as you like from the Newtown hitman in a cup final.
The final nail in the coffin for Celtic came in the 86th minute when substitute Oisin Greenan scored from a well-rehearsed freekick routine from Carthy, Cahill and Greenan.
Carthy chipped the ball over the wall to Cahill who found Greenan unmarked to volley the ball home to make it 3-1 on the day and game over for Celtic with only a couple of minutes remaining.
Commiserations to a Shamrock Celtic side who battled right until the end even when they went behind for a second time. Newtown were well deserved winners on the day and lifted the cup to make them the Charlie Bishop Cup Champions 2017.
Shamrock Celtic: 1. Stephen Doyle, 2. Noel McVeigh, 3. Peter Carter, 4. Gary Doyle, 5. Colin Cassidy, 6. Craig Doyle, 7. Michael Hodgesen, 8. Aiden O’Neill, 9. Glen Mc Carthy, 10. Stephen Morris, 11. Anto Byrne. Subs: 12. Scott Meaney, 13. Sean Ludden, 14. Brandon Doyle, 15. Aaron Garvey.
Newtown United: 1. Lee Fitzpatrick, 2. Martin Melia, 3. Neill Martin, 4. Ross Davis, 5. Glenn Carthy, 6. Matthew Kennedy, 7. Sean Heffernan, 8. Martin Williams, 9. Ryan Cahill, 10. Dillion Carthy, 11. Dessie Waters. Subs: 12. Richie Franey, 13. Mark Fitzsimon, 14. Conor O Dloin, 15. Luke Martin, 16. Oisin Greenan.
Referee: Michael Kennedy