Five-star Celtic win title
Avonmore have no answer to the impressive winners
SHAMROCK CELTIC were crowned Division 3 league champions last weekend after they strolled to a 5-0 win over Avonmore at Shamrock Park on Sunday afternoon.
Avonmore started on top as they dominated possession early on, their winger Rhyce Van Dijk went close in the fourth minute his long range free-kick effort forced Shamrock Celtic keeper Tommy Sullivan to pull off a great save to tip the ball around the post.
Celtic quickly became aware of the pace Avonmore had on the counter-attack as Van Dijk and Jake Hamilton were combining well to trouble the opposing defence.
The attackers combined well in the 12th minute as Van Dijk cut inside after his run down the left wing and squared the ball across the edge of the penalty area to Hamilton but again Sullivan in goal came up on top with a great save to keep the score level.
Shamrock Celtic slowly grew into the game and started to put together some attacks of their own, Scott Meaney was causing problems for the Avonmore defence over on the right wing and it wasn’t long before he made his mark on the game.
Meaney picked up the ball on the right wing and ran at the Avonmore defence before sliding the ball through to his team mate Michael Hodgkinson in the penalty area, whose firsttime shot opened the scoring for Celtic.
Great pace and vision by Meaney to pick out Hodgkinson on the 23rd minute.
Going in front gave Shamrock Celtic the confidence they
needed as they were shaky in midfield up until they scored, but they were now well on top.
They grabbed their second on the 40th minute through winger Kevin Murray.
Meaney delivered an out swinging corner to the edge of the box which was nodded back in by centre-back Colin Cassidy to Murray who forced the ball over the line at the back post to give his side a comfortable two goal lead as the game approached half-time.
Celtic could have had their third just on the stroke of half time when goal scorer Hodgkinson rounded the Avonmore keeper and tried to square the
ball to midfielder Eric Dunne who was just waiting to tap into an empty net but Peter Kennedy got across goal to clear the ball out of danger.
Celtic continued to dominate the game early in the second half as they found the back of the net again with striker Hodgkinson adding another goal to his tally.
Darren Collopy made a great run down the left side of the penalty area before floating in a cross to Hodgkinson who nodded the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
A great move by the two strikers to combine and potentially put the game to bed early in the
second half.
Avonmore threw everything they had at their opponents as they all pushed forward to try and nab a goal back but were leaving themselves short in defence and often under pressure from Celtic’s counter-attack. Avonmore introduced substitutes Kevin Dalton and Steven Wall on the hour mark and were given the difficult task to try and unsettle the Shamrock Celtic defence.
Midfielder Eric Dunne was unlucky not to get in on the scoring act on the 61st minute when Scott Meaney picked him out in the centre of the penalty area and had only the keeper to beat but couldn’t find a way past Chandler in goal and scuffed his effort wide of the post.
Dunne made up for his miss as he provided the assist for Celtic’s fourth goal as his in-swinging corner found Darren Collopy unmarked at the back post to head home in the 78th minute.
Celtic put the final nail in the coffin in the 86th minute when Darren Collopy grabbed a brace heading in a rebounded Scott Meaney shot to finalise the result for his side.
An incredible display from Shamrock Celtic who started the game a bit shaky but turned it around and can be delighted in the fact that they will be competing in Division 2 in a few weeks time after being crowned the Division 3 league champions.
1. Tommy Sullivan, 2. Phillip Gill, 3. Rob Gilespe, 4. Greg Doyle, 5. Colin Cassidy, 6. Aidan O’ Neill, 7. Scott Meaney, 8. Eric Dunne, 9. Michael Hodgkinson, 10. Darren Collopy,
11. Kevin Murray. Subs: Ingard Hansen for Michael Hodgkinson (78), Stefan Mercak for Rob Gilespe (68).
1. Jordan Chandler,
2. Cody Reid, 3. Dylan Pile, 4. Dan Sheehan, 5. Brendan Gahan, 6. Declan Breslin, 7. Wesley O’ Toole, 8. Peter Kennedy, 9. Jake Hamilton, 10. Darren Beevor, 11. Rhyce Van Dijk. Subs: Kevin Dalton for Wesley O’ Toole (70), Steven Wall for Jake Hamilton (71)
Carl Doyle