Juniors pack too much punch for Greystones in Woodlands

at Woodlands GREYSTONES UTD NEWTOWN JUNIORS 0 4

THE failure to take adequate advantage when favoured by the wind in the first half proved extremely costly for Greystones United as the home side crashed to an emphatic defeat by Newtown in this Under-13 Division 1 tie, at Woodlands on Saturday morning.

Playing into the sea end goal, the green-and-white outfit failed to seriously trouble opposition goalkeeper Ben Synnott in the opening 30 minutes, their attempts being confined to tame efforts from Harry Goldby and Callum Anderson.

In contrast, Newtown underlined their goalscoring capability after just 12 minutes, pacey right-winger Jake Robertson beating Greystones ‘keeper Oisin Flynn from a free kick awarded just outside the penalty box by referee Jamie Shea.

The visiting side maintained that advantage up to the half-time break, and, having to face the wind in the second half, the omens were distinctly unfavourable for Greystones.

Predictably, the anticipated pattern unfolded on the restart, with Newtown adding three goals to their first half tally,

Roberton once more underlying his free kick expertise,and Cathal O’Toole supplying the remaining two goals from open play.

As early as the fourth minute, Newtown forced the first corner of the contest, but, when the ball broke loose, Cormac Chance failed to generate sufficient power into his shot to trouble the Greystones goalkeeper.

Shortly after this, Roberton showed a nice turn of pace during an incisive dribble into the heart of the home defence, and then the same player opened the scoring when his free kick bounced in front of Flynn and struck the left post before ending up in the Greystones net.

On 22 minutes, the home goalkeeper was called into action when he deflected a goal-bound delivery out for a corner, from which Newtown failed to profit from.

Seven minutes later, an incisive four-player move involving the visiting team’s Robertson, Brooklyn Doyle, O’Toole and Dale Carthy ended with goalkeeper Flynn averting the danger with his feet.

And just before the interval, a stinging left-footed delivery from Newtown’s Cormac Chance flew just narrowly wide of the left upright.

On the restart, it took the visitors only two minutes to increase their lead, Doyle setting up O’Toole for his first goal, after a poor kickout by the Greystones United goalkeeper.

But almost immediately Flynn dealt capably with a dangerous high ball that was floated in, before O’Toole struck for his second goal after a shot by Doyle had been blocked on the goal line.

After 46 minutes, some excellent play by Roberton culminated in the Newtown No 7 hammering the ball into the side netting on the right, but four minutes later the same player put the tie beyond Greystones’ reach when he delightfully struck a free kick from just outside the box into the top right hand corner of the net.

Predictably, Newtown manager John Dunleavy expressed delight with his side’s performance, saying: ‘The lads played very well throughout the match, and being a goal up at half-tim after playing against the strong wind in the first half was a big bonus for us.

‘And hopefully we will build on this performance when we play Shillelagh next week.’

Despite the result, Greystones boss Allan Brennan was full of praise for the level of effort put in by his side.

‘Even when we were 4-0 down, the lads never gave up and they battled hard for a goal right to the final whistle,” he said.

‘The team that we had out there today was a mixture of two teams we had last year, so it was the first time a lot of the lads played together.’

GREYSTONES UNITED:

Oisin Flynn; Fionn McGarry, Oscar Walsh, Harry Goldby, Euan Mullins, Oisin O’Loughlin, Ethan Brennan, Brendan Harrison, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Thomas Darcy, Callum Anderson.

NEWTOWN:

Ben Synnott; Scott McKenna, Rose Kelly-Tynan, Cillian Coffey, PJ Duffy, Cormac Chance, Jake Robertson, Dylan Dunleavy, Brooklyn Doyle, Cathal O’Toole, Dale Carthy.

REFEREE:

Jamie Shea (Wicklow League).