Dingle’s Cup dream gets away from them
DINGLE Bay Rovers great odyssey in the Umbro FAI Junior Cup came to a disappointing end at Mounthawk Park on Sunday when they went down 2-0 to Donegal side Carondonagh FC.
Unfortunately for Dingle their home pitch was deemed unplayable by referee Kevin O’regan and the game was transferred to Mounthawk Park.
Dingle had made huge preparations for the big game so not surprisingly they were gutted when it did not go ahead at their home pitch but referee Kevin O’regan made the correct decision.
Dingle were without their ace midfielder Mikey Geaney and his silken skills were greatly missed, expecially when the chips were down in the second half.
Assisted by a stiff breeze Dingle were the dominant force in the opening half creating a lot of good scoring opportunitiues but they were unable to make the break though their endeavour merited.
They were on top at midfield stroking the ball around precisely with Joe Sheehy very influential while Tony Lawless was firing the artillary down the flanks keeping Sean O’connor busy up front.
Their first chance came in the seventh minute when Joe Sheehy done the ground work to release Tony Lawless and he let fly from 25 yards which the Carndonagh keeper Gerard Crossen done very well to tip over the bar.
Ten minutes later Eoin Murphy and Aodh Curran created an opening for Joe Sheehy and cutting in at an angle he fired the ball into the side netting.
They foced a number of corner kicks and Donnacha Higgins had a couple of half chances that he was not able to finish.
Sean O’connor also had two good scoring chances but on each occasion he was unable to get the ball past the Carndonagh custodian.
It took the visitors all of 40 minutes to get their first shot on goals and Dingle keeper Mark Manning had to make a smart save to deny Patrick Mcguinness.
On the stroke of half time Michael Toland breached the Dingle off side trap and it took a superb tacke by James Coffey to save the day.
Dingle enjoyed a great first half but their inability to capitalise on it was a worrying factor at half time.
Carndonagh were a transformed side in the second half as Dingle seemed to have lost their shape and had gone into their shell.
It always looked as if a score in this match would come from a set piece situation and that is what transpired in the 68th minute when Dingle failed to deal adequately with a Patrick Mcguinness corner kick and as the ball broke loose it was smashed into the roof of the net from five yards by Michael Byrne.
The West Kerry side just knew it was not going to be their day five minutes later when Carndonagh sub Cathal O’kane made a strong run in from the wing drilling the ball across the Dingle goalmouth and unfortunately it struck the foot of Patrick Neylon directing the ball past his own goalkeeper for a sickening own goal.
To their credit Dingle did not give up the chase but they never looked like they were going to reduce the deficiet and their great FAI Junior Cup campaign came to an end.
However, they can feel very proud of their achievements in this national competition and they were great ambassadors of Kerry soccer in the process.
DINGLE BAY ROVERS: Mark Manning, Patrick Neylon, Donnacha Higgins, Des Malley, Peter Flannery, Tony Lawless, James Coffey, Joe Sheehy, Eoin Murphy, Sean O’connor, Aodh Curran. Subs: John Brosnan for Tony Lawless, Sean Scanlon for Eoin Murphy, Mark Evans for Des Malley.
CARNDONAGH FC: Gerard Crossan, Brendan Tabb, Matthew Byrne, Gerard Doherty, Gerard Mceleney, Michael Toland, Patrick Mcguinness, Michael Byrne, Cathal Doherty, Oliver Mcconologue, Conor Doherty. Subs: Ronan Doherty for Conor Doherty, Cathal O’kane for Mcconologue.
REFEREE: Kevin O’regan