Greyhound Bar KO Cup 3rd Round, 2014

Kerry District League
Friday 30th May
Tralee Dynamos 1-0 Killarney Celtic

By Tommy Naughton

Tralee Dynamos advanced to the 4th round of the Greyhound Bar KO Cup with a win over Killarney Celtic on Friday night. These sides are among the top teams in Kerry and with ten players who were involved in this seasons Oscar Traynor squad maybe a much better game was expected, especially for the large crowd who showed up. Killarney in truth had a very depleted squad for the game with many of their regular starters missing, while Tralee Dynamos will be pleased to be in the hat for the next round no matter who the opposition was.

The game didn’t see loads of creative football as it was constantly stopped by the referee and in truth by the end of the game their was more yellows cards shown than shots on target.

The opening chance of the game fell to the visitors after a few minutes when a Tony Brosnan cross had to be diverted over his own bar by Jonathan Burrows who was under severe pressure from Gintarus Paketarus. The Dynamos were controlling the game better as the half went on but just lacked the final pass to get in behind the Celtic defence.

Just after the half hour mark Celtic really should have taken the lead. Tony Brosnan’s long diagonal ball found Stephen Hayes whose cross picked out Farouke. Farouke was free six yards from goal and instead on using his head he tried to control the ball on his chest but it bounced away into the grateful hands of Gary Sugrue.

Minutes later the only goal of the game was to come after some very good build up play. Uros Ivkovic played a defence splitting past to Johnathan Hannafin who had made a great run from left back to the top corner of the pitch. Hannafin composed himself and rolled the ball back to Uros who sent a deep cross into the Celtic Box. Celtic’s keeper Roy Kelliher could only partially punch the ball away and if fell to Aaron Houlihan who squared the ball for Damien Diggins to cushion a header into the path of Danny Roche and he made no mistake from inside the six yard box.

Just before the half time break Gary Sugrue gathered a long range effort from Paketarus to keep the Tralee side ahead at the break.

The second half was only minutes old when Sugrue had to save again when Fergal O’Donoghue picked out Paketarus whose snapshot didn’t have enough to trouble the keeper. Tralee Dynamos were now keeping the ball better without creating any clear chances but came close from James Sugrue who had three free kicks in a row but all missed the target.

Eoin Cassidy could have killed the game off with fifteen minutes remaining but his header from a James Sugrue cross went across the face of the goal and wide. Things got even harder for the away side with nine minutes remaining when John McDonagh received his second yellow card.

Shane Lowth sent Maurice O’Rahilly through with minutes remaining but after beating the defender, keeper Fergal O’Donoghue came out of no where to clear. The final chance of the game was a long range effort from Stephen Hayes but Gary Sugrue gathered and the full time while went to the delight of the home side.

Tralee Dynamos: Garry Sugrue, Maurice O’ Rahilly , Mark Fitzgerald, Jonathan Hannafin, Jonathan Burrows , James Sugrue, Shane Guthrie , Aaron Houlihan, Danny Roche, Uros Ivkovic, Damien Diggins. Subs used Eoin Cassidy for Diggins (61 Mins), Cian Kennedy for Houlihan (65 Mins) , Shane Lowth for Ivkovic (80 Mins) .

Killarney Celtic: Roy Kelliher , Pierce Lyons, John McDonagh, Fergal o Donoghue, Conor Randall , Tony Brosnan, Gary Keane(Booked), Farouke, Gintarus Paketarus, Lee o Callaghan .

Referee ; Willie Gorman .