Glencormac survive Carnew recovery
Brave fightback from Carnew falls agonisingly short
AFTER holding an emphatic 4-1 lead in the early stages of the second-half, Glencormac United went precariously close to dropping two points in this Wicklow League Andy McEvoy Premier Division One clash at Ryder’s Field on Sunday afternoon.
A hat-trick by James Delahunty, which saw the No 10 find the net twice in the opening half and once on the restart, and another goal from Josh O’Callaghan, powered the home into their three-goal advantage with just three minutes played on the turn-over.
At that stage, Andy Bishop’s charges looked set to romp to a comfortable victory, but, to Carnew’s immense credit, they battled valiantly to pull themselves back into contention, and they certainly would not have been flattered if they had come away from the Kilmacanoge venue with a share of the spoils.
First-half scorer Cillian Gilligan, whose side trailed 2-1 at the interval, was emulated by teammate Brendan McCrea on the restart, and then PJ O’Keeffe threw the contest wide open by scoring a third goal for the visiting side.
Subsequently, with five minutes left, Carnew missed a golden opportunity of equalising when Gilligan, after sending home ‘keeper Gabor Radiosky the wrong way, drove narrowly wide from the penalty spot.
Unlucky Carnew are deserving of additional credit for their valiant and courageous recovery from a significantly unfavourable position, due to the fact that they were forced to play with only 10 men for the last 13 minutes, owing to the straight red card handed out by referee David Jameson to striker Brendan McCrea for “violent conduct”.
On a chilly afternoon, Glencormac made the ideal start to the contest, when James Delahunty beat visiting goalkeeper Nathan Murphy for the first time.
Following a low centre from the right wing by right-back Mark Delahunty, the ball broke loose and the No 10 reacted smartly to the situation to open the scoring.
However, it was Carnew who had the better of much of the subsequent exchanges in the first-half, and they went close to pulling themselves back to parity on a number of occasions before Gilligan beat Radiosky from close range following a free-kick by Sean Murphy.
But just before half-time, Glencormac regained the lead when James Delahunty was on hand to take advantage after Nathan Murphy spilled the ball in the wake of a free-kick from Sam O’Callaghan.
Inside a minute of the second half, James Delahunty completed his hat-trick, latching on to a through ball on this occasion, and just two minutes later Josh O’Callaghan was rewarded for his tenacity and determination, when with goalkeeper Murphy and left back Eoghan Dolan seemingly in control of the situation, he toepoked the ball to the net.
But on 52 minutes, Brendan McCrea pulled a goal back for the visitors from a free-kick, and with 25 minutes left, sub John Kavanagh set up O’Keeffe for Carnew’s third goal.
Afterwards, Glencormac boss Andy Bishop said: “In fairness to Carnew, you’re never coasting when you’re playing them. They’re a cracking team – they just don’t stop, and fair dues to them.
“And we said to the lads at halftime that even if we go 3-1 or 4-1 up, these lads (Carnew) just won’t stop, and they proved that today by the way they fought back when we went three goals up. So we got away with it.
“Obviously with the two goals within a few minutes of half-time, we couldn’t have got off to a better start in the second-half, and of course, that meant that James (Delahunty) scored a hat-trick for us.
“But Carnew hit back with their two goals in the second-half, and, of course, they had a chance to equalise from the penalty which thankfully they missed. Actually, I thought that the penalty was a bit harsh, as I felt that it (the offence) was a bit outside the box.
“We know ourselves that we didn’t play well on the day, but thankfully we got the three points and in the end that’s all that really matters.
“And naturally we’re very happy that we now have full points from the three games that we’ve played. In our first two games, we had two good wins, and in this one, we got over the line.”
Carnew manager Clinton Murphy remarked: “Naturally missing the penalty was a huge disappointment for us. But I don’t want to be critical of Cillian Gilligan as he only missed the net by a few inches. Some days they go in for you, and other days they don’t.
“As well, he played very well today.
“Even when we went down to 10 (men), I thought that we were way the better team. But you get them days when nothing will go in for you.
“In the first-half alone, we had nine or 10 chances, but they just wouldn’t go in.
“However, despite the result, it was a very encouraging performance by the lads, as they showed tremendous spirit and character by recovering from going 4-1 down to put themselves in with a great chance of taking a point from the game.
“At least, we should have got a draw, but we’ll go the next day and hopefully we’ll pick up three points when we are away to Arklow under lights next Saturday night.
“As well as going so close to getting a draw today, we’ll take heart from the fact that it was only our first games in this season’s league, whereas it was Glencormac’s third game”.
GLENCORMAC UNITED: Gabor Radiosky; Mark Delahunty, Sam O’Callaghan, Paul Devlin, Martin Sustovious, Simon Doyle, Josh O’Callaghan, Luke O’Callaghan, Nay Waters, James Delahunty, Ryan Nolan. Subs: Stephen Kirwan for Nolan (65), Steve Kearney for James Delahunty (75). CARNEW AFC:
Nathan Murphy; Dean Grandy, Eoghan Dolan, Dan Nolan, Sean Murphy, Conor Mulholland, PJ O’Keeffe, Wayne Kinsella, Conal McCrea, Brendan McCrea, Cillian Gilligan. Subs: John Kavanagh for Kinsella (52), JJ McCrea for Mulholland (57).