*Photograph: Joe Buckley
TULLA UTD have put a serious dent in Newmarket Celtic’s aspirations of winning the CDSL Premier Division.
Tulla Utd 1
Newmarket Celtic 0
Venue: McDonough Memorial Park, Newmarket-on-Fergus
In what was a dress rehearsal of the upcoming Ennis Carpets Clare Cup final, Tulla Utd gave themselves a serious boost of confidence while also inflicting a considerable dent in Newmarket Celtic’s chances of league glory.
Dan Withycombe’s late strike with ninety four minutes on the clock proved to be the difference on an evening when there should have been much more than one goal.
There was no glimpses of shadow boxing from either side and the desire for each outfit to prevail was visible to see. It was clear with the celebrations from Tulla’s team and squad following their late winner and the verbals that followed with some of their opponents which really tees up an intriguing novel Cup final on May 24th.
Referee Michael Rock sent off Tulla Utd manager Mike Moloney shortly after the hour mark. The visitors seemed to have a strong call to be awarded a penalty after Seán Withycombe was challenged by Ian Collins in the box, the decision not to award the spot kick left the East Clare side and their management furious, Moloney’s airing of his views resulted in his dismissal.
Spectators in Newmarket-on-Fergus were in a sense of disbelief at half time that the hosts had failed to score. Captain Harvey Cullinan missed a gilt-edge chance in additional time and this was followed by his centre-half partner Antony Dabrytnes firing a header over the cross bar.
Both goalkeepers produced fine showings, Shane Cusack was agonisingly denied a clean sheet at the death, he did his level best to keep Newmarket from conceding a goal but Tulla eventually burst the dam with their last attack. He was also heavily involved in creating chances with precision clearances, often linking up with Eoin Hayes but sharpness was lacking up front regarding players to get into threatening opportunities for Hayes to offload to.
Simon Kilker at the other end produced a fine array of saves and was alert throughout including early on in the second half when Ian Collins and Aaron Rudd combined to tee up a potential chance. He had more to do to deny chances from David McCarthy and Eoin Hayes later in the tie while he had the upright to thanks for keeping out a Kieran Hackett effort on eighty five minutes.
Striker Tadhg Noonan was offside on sixty two minutes, therefore his goal was disallowed.
Tulla’s wave of attacks began following Hackett’s miss. An excellent tackle from Ian Collins on Sean Withycombe cleared danger but only in the direction of Fionn Ryan who fired over.
His brother Dara Ryan was next to have a shot but his effort was saved by Cusack and the Newmarket netminder then did well to stop a Withycombe attempt. His greatest save of the evening arrived on ninety minutes when he got his fingers to Adam Kilker’s well executed effort.
Aaron Rudd had a chance to snatch a winner for Celtic but drove his effort over the bar but at the other end, Tulla managed to work a move, Seán Withycombe who brought their challenge to another level had the shot which was saved by Cusack and his older brother Dan Withycombe was on alter to fire the rebound to the net.
This result means Newmarket Celtic must defeat Avenue Utd on Sunday and hope their rivals also lose out to Bridge Utd, in short the odds of them winning the league have been greatly reduced by this setback.
Tulla Utd: Simon Kilker; Adam McNamara, Dara Ryan, Conor McFadden, Fionn Ryan, Adam Kilker, Ayoub Aguerram, Eoin Hassett, Callum Casey, Jashar Aliu, Raymond Bane.
Subs: Sean Withycombe for Casey (56), Daragh Corry for Bane (69), Jack McSweeney for Aliu (77).
Newmarket Celtic: Shane Cusack; Ian Collins, Antony Dabryntes, Harvey Cullinan, Cathal Cullinan, Jack Kelly, Cian McDonough, Nathan Boaventura, Eoin Hayes, Dean Hegarty, Tadhg Noonan.
Subs: Aaron Rudd for Boaventura (57), David McCarthy for McDonough (68), Kieran Hackett for Noonan (68).
Referee: Michael Rock
