- Sam McKeever
- Fri, May 07 2021
A late Mitchell Byrne goal grabbed Cabinteely a vital three points in the First Division at Stradbrook against Cobh Ramblers on Friday night.
The home side came into this off the back of a good 2-1 win over Athlone Town while Cobh had suffered a 4-0 hammering off Galway United.
Cobh started off the brightest as Killian Cooper played in Christopher O’Reilly with the forward’s low driven effort saved well by Cabo ‘keeper Adam Hayden’s left foot as he turned it around the post for a corner.
Stuart Ashton’s men resorted to a lot of long balls from defense to try and create chances and a knockdown from Cooper fell to the feet of Jake Hegarty saw his long-range effort charged down well by Cabinteely captain Daniel Blackbyrne.
In a half that had very little quality former Shamrock Rovers man Kieran Marty Waters brought the ball down beautifully before a fantastic swivel in the box managed to let him get a fantastic volley off from close range as Sean Barron dived to his left to make the save.
Cobh changed up their gameplay for the second half to a more passing approach and it nearly paid off just before the hour mark. The ball dropped to midfielder David O’Leary with his shot having to be tipped over well by Hayden in the Cabo goal.
Shortly after a good ball in from the deep by John Kavanagh found Cooper at the back post and his pull back right across the goal had no one to tap home.
Ashton’s men were trying to make their early second half pressure count. A free kick from deep by full back John Kavanagh to the back post found striker Cooper. He did brilliantly to hook the ball into the six yard area but luckily for Cabo no maroon shirt was there to force it home into an empty net.
Cabinteely responded well to the pressure that was put on them by the away side as a long ball from defense found Ben Hanarhan but his shot just went past the right-hand post.
O’Reilly managed to bring a high ball down before his turn and shot had to be well saved at full stretch by Hayden in the Cabinteely goal.
The away side’s good work was then undone three minutes from the end as persistence from substitute Jem Campion in the box manage to poke it away from Cobh defend before Mitchell Byrne managed to slam home the loose ball into the roof of the net from six yards out.
A tight game all round which Cobh will feel like they deserved a point for their battling efforts throughout the game while Cabinteely will be delighted to build on their fantastic win from last week again Athlone.
Cabinteely: Adam Hayden; Daniel Blackbyrne, Zak O’Neill, Kieran Marty Walters, Niall Barnes; Ben Hanarahan (Jem Campion 80), Eoin Massey (Eoin McPhillips 48), Luke McWilliams, Dean Casey; Jordan Payne, Mitchell Byrne
Subs Not Used: Ben Clarke, Alex Aspil, Luke Clucas, Conor Knight, Villas Navutus, Joe Hyland, Deane Watters
Booked: Daniel Blackbyrne (55)
Cobh Ramblers: Sean Barron; John Kavanagh, Lee Devitt-Molloy, Ian Turner, Killian Cooper (Gavin Ryan 79); Nathan Coleman, David O’Leary, Cian Murphy, Darryl Walsh; Christopher O’Reilly, Jake Hegarty
Subs Not Used: Corey Chambers, Darren Murphy, Connor Drinan, James McCarthy, Kevin WIlliams
Booked: Nathan Coleman (37), Jake Hegerty (85)
Referee: Gavin Colfer
extratime.com Player of The Match: Mitchel Byrne (Cabinteely)
