Sweet revenge for Celtic over 10-man title holders

Connacht Cup Quarter-Final 

Castlebar Celtic 2 

Athenry 1 

Paul O’Malley at Celtic Park 

Confucius once said that before embarking on a journey of revenge in the Connacht Cup, you should dig two graves. Castlebar Celtic nearly dug their own grave with an avoidable own goal in the second-half against 10-man Athenry but revenge did come sweet in the end when Dylan Edwards’ late winner sank the Galway side who had beat them on penalties in the final of this competition last year.

A red card, that head-scratcher of an own goal, the dramatic winner and two teams who don’t have a lot of love for each other – all of the elements of football were in the mix here, not to mention the atmosphere generated by both sets of supporters as evening turned to night under the lights in Castlebar.

Athenry will have felt their chances turn very slim when Stephen Relihan was shown a straight red card for a diabolical challenge on Jordan Loftus with 37 minutes played and the visitors already a goal down. They refused to lie down and though they suddenly showed a lot more invention, their equaliser came via an absolute fluke with just over an hour played.

For the next half hour, Athenry came close to sneaking ahead but once they began to tire, Celtic found a moment of magic to create the goal to take them to their third Connacht Cup semi-final in four years.

It was aggressive from the get-go as Ioseph O’Reilly and Cathal Coyne both found themselves getting familiar with Cole Connolly, Athenry’s powerful centre-forward. Connolly came off second best in the referee’s eyes in the early exchanges and was booked with 13 minutes played.

The best chance had fallen to Athenry’s Gavin Gilmore who cut inside from the left and fired at goal but Stefan Hester got down well to save.

The Hoops were trying to breach Athenry’s high line and found a breakthrough with 29 minutes on the clock. It was route one stuff as they went from front to back. Cathal Coyne’s pass was well-measured and Kelly collected it, took one glance to ensure that linesman Jimmy Cawley’s flag stayed down and off he galloped goalwards. He maintained his composure to fire in the opening goal.

With 37 minutes played, Jordan Loftus slid along the surface to win possession for his side but was caught by Stephen Relihan, who slid in for the same ball but caught Loftus with his studs high up and late. Damien McGrath had no hesitation and sent him straight off, despite the protests from the away bench.

The sending off seemed to galvanise Athenry more so than deflate them. Kody McCann in particular was proving a menace on the flank and Cole Connolly was continuing to make life difficult for Celtic, especially with Ioseph O’Reilly now in the book for a foul on the striker.

With 61 played, Athenry got handed a way back into the game when Stefan Hester failed to control O’Reilly’s back pass. The ball spun in under the goalkeeper’s foot as he attempted to control it and into the back of the net to make it 1-1.

The battle continued and at times, it looked more like an 11 v 11 game than Celtic having a man advantage, such was Athenry’s ability to keep a foothold in the game. They began to tire around the 80-minute mark however, and Celtic pushed on, keen to avoid extra time with so many bodies battered from the physical nature of the game to this point.

Dylan Edwards drove forward and found Jordan Loftus in front of him. Edwards continued his run and Loftus hoofed a pass over the heads of the Athenry defence to find Edwards in behind. He took it down and slotted it home to send the home crowd into raptures. He whipped off his jersey and graciously accepted his yellow card following the rampant celebrations.

Celtic held on in injury time to secure a famous victory and a place in the semi-final where they will face Galway opposition once more, with Salthill Devon, Colga and Maree/Oranmore all into the pot for the open draw.

Castlebar Celtic: Stefan Hester, Mark Cunningham, Ioseph O’Reilly, Cathal Coyne, Brian Walsh, Ben Murphy, Oran Groarke, Dylan Edwards, Jason Hunt, Jordan Loftus, Luke Kelly. Subs: Fionn Mahon (for Kelly 79), Eoghan Hughes (For Hunt 90+3).

Athenry: TJ Forde, Gary O’Connell, Stephen Relihan, Sean O’Callaghan, Adam Duffy, Ray Moran, Kody McCann, Aaron Neary, Cole Connolly, Aiden Coyle, Gavin Gilmore. Subs: Ryan Corcoran (for Neary 76) REF: Damien McGrath