Arklow stay in race
United keep up the pressure on leaders Glencormac
ST PATRICK’S ARKLOW UNITED 0 3
ARKLOW United saw off a difficult game against St. Pat’s as they continued to challenge Glencormac for the title with 3-0 victory.
Arklow United kept up the pressure on league leaders Glencormac with a great performance against St. Pat’s last Sunday afternoon with goals coming from Jonny Quinn, David O’Neill and Ben Travers.
The game started with Arklow United forcing pressure on the home side’s defence. Ben Travers and Zach Kilbride were combining in the final third and it was only a matter of time before one of the strikers opened the scoring.
There was some questionable offside decisions that went against Travers in the opening 15 minutes with referee Owen White believing the striker had made his runs too early on a number of occasions and blew for offside, much to the frustration of Travers and his team mates.
It was Travers who opened the scoring on the 19th minute with an excellent assist from United goalkeeper Mark Harte.
Harte rose above everyone in the penalty area to catch the ball from a corner kick from the opposing side, Harte then picked out Travers from long range. Travers made no mistake and slotted the ball past Jason Porter.
United almost made it 2-0 on the 23rd minute when Ben Travers was through on goal before being clipped on the ankle by Chris Arthur which incredibly didn’t result in a penalty as play was waved on by the referee.
Just on the half hour mark Zach Kilbride should have made it 2-0 after he was played in one on one with keeper Jason Porter by David O’Neill but Kilbride’s effort was excellently saved by Porter.
United went in at half time being one goal in-front but would have to up the tempo in the second half to keep all three points.
As the second half began Pat’s almost grabbed an equaliser on the 46th minute with a strike from Sean Dunne. Dunne went for a low powerful strike from about 25 yards out, the ball struck the right post and trickled across the goal line only to his the other post and was cleared by Harte out of danger. So close for the home side.
The introduction of Johnny Quinn is what made all the difference in the game, as Travers had ran out of steam up front.
Quinn was subbed on to try and hassle the Pat’s defence and made an instant impact as he assisted David O’Neill for the second goal of the game on the 75th minute.
Quinn had made a great run on the edge of the box before cutting inside and twisted and turned be- fore back heeling the ball to O’Neill who blasted the ball into the net.
Disaster struck for Pat’s on the 76th minute when their keeper was sent off for violent conduct involving himself and Johnny Quinn.
Another long ball by keeper Mark Harte meant that Quinn and Porter challenged for the same ball but Porter obviously felt Quinn went in to hard as he got up and pushed the striker.
The referee quickly showed Porter the red card as he felt there was nothing wrong with Quinn’s challenge.
Quinn finalised the result with sealing the last goal of the game on the 87th minute as he was set up David O’Neill before slotting the ball under Ryan Werder who had replaced Porter in goal.
A great result for the away side as they hope to keep challenging Glencormac until the end of the season as they wait for the league leaders to slip up.