Rathnew sink Celtic
Merrigan hat-trick helps the Village to convincing win
RATHNEW 4 ARKLOW CELTIC 1
ARKLOW Celtic suffered their first league defeat of the season after an impressive display from Rathnew as they strolled to a 4-1 victory.
Arklow Celtic went into the game with a 100 percent league record but would have to find a way past a strong Rathnew side.
Rathnew started the game in the best way possible as they opened the scoring with just two minutes on the clock.
Rathnew striker Graham Merrigan slotted the ball past Celtic keeper John Cushe after a long ball from Edward Doyle found Merrigan in space and he beat the offside trap before slotting home.
There was a good competitive start to the game as both sides started to put in some hard but fair challenges.
Lee Doyle was putting himself about up front as he usually does and was beginning to become a problem for the Rathnew defence as he got more and more of the ball as he grew into the game.
Gary McLoughlin was providing some great width out on the left wing and was delivering in some dangerous crosses into the penalty area but his team mates failed to capitalise on McLoughlin’s crosses.
Things started to turn in favour of the home side as they went 2-0 up on the 19th minute.
Rathnew were awarded a freekick just outside the penalty area, Graham Merrigan lined up to take the free-kick and looked like he was going for power rather than technique but fooled the Celtic wall and keeper as he went for a low strike that went under the wall and just past keeper John Cushe, who couldn’t keep it out.
Celtic began to fight back and Shane Walker almost grabbed a goal back on the 31st minute with an impressive run followed up by a powerful shot, but his effort went just wide of the post.
Rathnew rounded off the first half with another goal again from striker Graham Merrigan who grabbed his hat-trick on the 44th minute with a tidy finish to give his side a three-goal lead going into the second-half.
Celtic were unlucky not to get awarded a penalty early in the second-half when David Kavanagh looked to cross the ball across the penalty area and it looked like a Rathnew defender stopped the ball with his hand, but referee Paul Murphy believed the ball had hit the defender’s face rather than his hand.
The game started to take an ugly turn late on in the game as both sides started to put in some rough challenges.
Celtic did manage to grab a goal back through Brian Thompson in the 78th minute but their hopes of a comeback were soon dashed as Rathnew secured the full three points with Mark Doyle grabbing their fourth goal late on.
RATHNEW: 1. Paddy Reynolds,
2. Shaun Paul Dunne, 3. Edward Doyle, 4. Jason Devlin, 5. Kristian Keary, 6. Jordan Graham, 7. Gary Byrne, 8. Kyle Devlin, 9. Graham Merrigan, 10. Jordan Merrigan, 11. Michael Doyle. Subs: Mark Doyle for Jordan Merrigan (78th min)
ARKLOW CELTIC: 1. John Cushe,
2. Larry Byrne, 3. Kevin Moorehouse, 4. Nathan Doyle, 5. Jay Wolohan, 6. Shane Walker, 7. Brian Thompson, 8. Paddy Walker, 9. Lee Doyle, 10. David Kavanagh,
11. Gary Mc Loughlin. Subs: Jay Rowlands for David Kavanagh (60min), Daniel Lai for Gary Mc Loughlin (75min), Mark Doyle for Lee Doyle (75min). REFEREE: Paul Murphy.