Boy what a finish as Corlett strikes late
ALBION ROVERS ATHBOY CELTIC 1 0
A VERY young Albion side went into this clash as underdogs, considering that Athboy Celtic had ex League of Ireland stars Sean Thornton and Gavin Brennan in their ranks.
The young guns from Albion took it to Athboy from the off and almost took the lead when Helder Mota beat Brennan to a ball and found himself one on one, but the Athboy keeper came out on top in that duel. Soon after Evan Corlett had a chance to make it 1-0 from a tight angle but saw his shot flash across goal.
The home side’s midfield pairing of Shane Lowney and Danny Starrs were bossing proceedings and keeping Thornton relatively quiet.
The referee was certainly kept busy in that opening 45 minutes, dishing out no fewer than seven yellow cards, five of those to the home side, and on the restart the exchanges became very heated, with Athboy being reduced to nine men and Albion to 10.
Albion were the ones creating the chances, with Corlett skipping by Brennan and firing wide instead of squaring to Niall Smyth who would have had an easy tap-in. But then the referee mistakenly sent off another Albion player who he thought he had booked in the first half - afterwards he rectified the error and recinded the red card.
With the sides now even in both numbers and on the scoreboard, Albion pushed on and their persistence was rewarded in the shape of a winner in the dying seconds. Corlett won a sprint for the ball with ex-Drogheda United and Shamrock Rovers player Brennan, made it to the endline and beat another player before finishing low past the Athboy keeper.
Best for Albion were Corlett, Starrs and man of the match Eoin McDonnell.
ALBION: M Mullen, K Harding, J Reynolds, N McEvoy (N Smyth), E McDonnell, S Lowney, S Kelly, D Starrs, E Corlett, H Mota, D Kirwan (G Maher).