COOLBOY MARCH TO CROWN
Sound defensive showing thwarts gallant Arklow side
COOLBOY RANGERS 3 ARKLOW TOWN 1
COOLBOY RANGERS turned on the style to clinch the Under-14 Interim final against Arklow Town in Coolafancy last Thursday evening.
Trailing by 3-2 after the first leg from the Bridgewater Centre Park, the Arklow Town lads came to the clash with an impressively positive attitude and they played some wonderful football over the course of the game but were undone by a powerful showing from the home side - inspired from the back by Ruairi O’Brien and Odhran Doyle.
Callum Patterson’s delightful lob in the 20th minute put the home side on the front foot. It had been 20 minutes of decent endeavour from both sides. It was Patterson who fired the first shot in anger when he fired in a low worm-burner from just outside the box. Collum O’Neill was alert to the danger and got down to palm it out for a Coolboy corner which was whipped in by Ruairi O’Brien but flew past everyone.
Arklow attacked but were thwarted by Ruairi O’Brien at the expense of a corner. Peter Boddy got on the end of that, but his shot was blocked out
for another corner which was defended well by the home defence.
Arklow’s first major chance came around the 15-minute mark when Owen Byrne powered into the Coolboy box and past Louis Judge but before he could kick the ball to the back of an empty net Rory Tallon was on hand to clear the danger and concede a corner.
Patterson’s goal stung the Arklow Town lads and Ruairi O’Brien’s magnificent strike shortly afterwards from a free from midfield that sailed past everyone in the Arklow Town
box gave the visitors a real mountain to climb at 5-2 overall.
The ambition from Arklow Town to play lovely football was clear to be seen, but they were coming up against an unforgiving defence and were finding opportunities to trouble Louis Judge very hard to come by.
Town pushed hard for the next 10 minutes with Saad Musse going down in the Coolboy box with the penalty calls being waved away and then Oisin O’Reilly brought a superb save out of Judge when he latched on to a loose ball but the Coolboy netminder was on
hand to save and the reliable Odhran Doyle hooked it clear of the dangerzone.
It was all Arklow Town early in the second half as well as they pushed hard for a lifeline in this tie. Oisin O’Reilly was handed the first real chance when Cormac Ward swept in a cross from the wing and O’Reilly met it with the head, but it drifted just a fraction too high and brushed off the top side of the crossbar.
And then Town won a penalty. The superb work from Oisin O’Reilly saw him cut it back in from the endline and Aaron Dunne pulled the trigger, but it
came back off Wicktar Kosinskiis’ hand the referee pointed to the penalty spot.
Up stepped Aaron Dunne but his low strike was saved by Louis Judge and the Coolboy lads breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, after dominating the game for a good 15 minutes, Town found the back of the Coolboy net. A dangerous cross was met by Aaron Dunne on the volley and the strike crept in past the post and the despairing hand of Louis Judge to make it 5-3 in total. Still a pile of work to do for the visitors.
It was end-to-end stuff at this stage. Town came close through Peter Boddy who was working hard around the middle. Coolboy’s Kyle Doyle was making a nuisance of himself at the other end.
But the final nail in the Arklow Town coffin arrived with eight minutes to go. Columba Curran broke forward and galloped into the Town box where he hit the ground after contact from a town defender. Penalty. Kyle Doyle placed the ball and expertly stuck it in the bottom corner giving Collum O’Neill absolutely no chance.
Town never gave up in this game and they deserve all the praise that can be heaped upon them for the manner in which they conducted themselves. However, they met a savagely determined Coolboy side who never once doubted their own abilities and deservedly claimed the crown when the final whistle sounded.
Coolboy Rangers:1. Louis Judge, 2. Rory Tallon, 3. Ruairi O’Brien, 4. Odhran Doyle, 5. Columba Curran, 6. Owen Hedderman,
7. Macdara O’Neill, 8. Callum Patterson, 9. Wicktar Kosinskiis, 10. Declan Forsyte, 11. Kyle Doyle, 12. Gavin Murphy, 13. Joe McClean.
Arklow Town FC: 1. Collum O’Neill, 2. Cormac Ward, 3. Conor McEleron, 4. Graham Martin, 5. Thomas Burke, 6. Konrad Kopalski,
7. Cian O’Neill, 8. Peter Boddy, 9. Owen Byrne, 10. Aaron Dunne, 11. Saad Musse, 12. Wicktor Gajek, 13. Christian Nazeri, 14. Jamie Payne,
15. Oisin O’Reilly. Referee: K Neville