Clinical Crettyard through to next round of Leinster
Crettyard put in a dominant performance on Sunday morning to secure their place in the next round of Leinster as they overcame Division 1 side Kilree Celtic with ease. Crettyard have had a tough start to the season so far, losing in the first round of both the Shield and the Plate. Kilree progressed past the first round of the Shield but lost in the second round to the Division One favourites. As the scoreline suggests, Crettyard were dominant from the first moment, putting a young Kilree side to the sword with six different goal scorers.
Kilree, a young side came out full of energy but just couldn’t cope with the intensity that the 2024 Premier Division champions brought to the table and they were forced into making mistakes.
Crettyard showed from the off that they were up to the fight. With two minutes on the clock, Riogan Doran who will consider himself unlucky to not have scored in the match, steered a free kick goalwards but it was palmed away by TJ Darcy in the Kilree goal.
A minute later, Mark Fitzgerald swung in a corner from the left with Anthony Fitzpatrick getting onto the end of it in the middle and knocking it in as Crettyard took the lead in the game.
The Crettyard defence was then breached with ten minutes on the clock as Shane Tobin’s free from the left was headed into the top left hand corner by Ashley Dallimore who scored his third goal in three games.
Doran and James Dowling, who will be hoping to win back to back county football titles with Old Leighlin in a few weeks time, both saw efforts saved with Doran hitting an effort wide too.
It was three goals in four minutes that did the damage for Crettyard. They retook the lead just shy of the half hour mark with Fitzgerald striking an effort from distance off the left hand post, with the ball ricocheting in to make it 2-1.
It was 3-1 when Mikey Byrne slotted an effort over the head of Darcy in the Kilree goal from just inside the box.
Doran whipped in a cross into the box from the right and Craig Comerford got onto the end of it to slot it into the back of the net to give Crettyard a 3-1 advantage.
Kilree were offered a lifeline in the game when they were awarded a penalty but Dallimore struck his effort well over the bar. Crettyard should have made it 5 just before the break when Doran’s effort from the left hit off the right hand post. Zaccarouis Phelan tried to hit the rebound in but he struck it wide on the right with an open goal instead.
Comerford added a second when he curled a free from the edge of the box into the bottom left hand corner of the net to make it 5-1.
Byrne hit an effort from the left across the box whilst Comerford struck a free from the edge of the box, more centrally than the last but saw it saved by Darcy.
Midway through the half, Phelan got his name on the scoresheet, striking an effort from the right in behind the ‘keeper and into the far bottom corner.
Fitzpatrick could have had a second but saw his effort saved onto the crossbar.
Ryan Byrne got goal number seven when Kyle O’Reilly swung in a cross from the left and Byrne was on hand to tap it in at the back post.
Fitzpatrick secured his hat-trick with two late goals in three minutes before referee Nathan Bannon put a tired Kilree side out of their misery.
Ronan Egan, Jack Brady, Dara Dunne, Craig Comerford, Mikey Byrne, Ross Fitzgerald, Zaccarouis Phelan, Mark Fitzgerald, Anthony Fitzpatrick, Riogan Doran, James Dowling.
Paddy Fox, Kyle Casburn, Kyle O’Reilly, Dylan Waters, Ryan Byrne, Cristoir Maher, John Dunphy.
TJ Darcy, Daniel Haughney, Jason Salter, Eamonn Nolan, David Reddy, Shane Tobin, Eric Salter Williams, Darragh O’Meara, Jake McAssey, TJ Ahmed Geoghegan, Ashley Dallimore.
Stephen Salter, Mark McDonald.
Nathan Bannon.
