Warriors come through cup battle with flying colours

DULEEK BOYS WALSH’T’N WARRIORS 0 3

WALSHESTOWN Warriors struck three times in the second half of this Under-13 Cup tie at the Tollstone to see off a battling Duleek Boys side and reach the semi-finals.

However, it was the home team who started the stronger and would have taken the lead on several occasions were it not for excellent defending by Shea Cooney at the heart of the Walshestown back four. The visitors’ goalkeeper Christian McCloskey also had to pull off some brave saves in the opening period and he was rescued by his woodwork on the stroke of half-time to keep the tie scoreless at the break.

Soon after the break, however, Walshestown’s Blake Kennedy broke down the right with pace and cut inside the box to shoot but was instead taken down for a penalty.

Despite the Duleek goalkeeper’s best efforts, guessing the correct way, Walshestown’s James Finnegan - playing his fist game in eight weeks following injury - sent the ball hard to the right to put the away team into the lead.

Duleek pushed hard for the equaliser and were again thwarted by Cooney at the back, but with 10 minutes to go Cooney intercepted a Duleek attack and played the ball long to Oscar McKenna who lifted the ball high over the advancing keeper to double the Warriors’ lead.

In the final 10 minutes the central midfield partnership of Frank Yu and Callum Skinnader controlled the game and following a great one-two between the pair the ball found McKenna in space and he scored his second goal of the day.

In an all-round great team performance from the winners, it was Cooney and McKenna who shone brightest.