Carrig brush Corinthians aside in five-star showing

Carrigaline United 5 College Corinthians 0

JJ Hurley

Rob Walker who scored Carrig's fouth goal on Friday night

Carrigaline United produced a dominant display to sweep aside College Corinthians 5-0 at Ballea on Friday night in the FAI Junior Cup.

With just three points separating the sides in the Beamish Stout Munster Premier Junior League, this was expected to be a close contest, but the home side took control early, striking twice inside the opening 14 minutes.

The breakthrough came on seven minutes when the influential Luke O’Donnell slipped a pass through to Corry Cronin, who finished confidently to the net.

With both sides playing a high line, James McSweeney stood out defensively, marshalling the backline with authority.

The hosts doubled their lead on 14 minutes as Richard Duggan turned provider, picking out Darren O’Keeffe, who showed great composure to steer past Dylan Ryan.

Cronin nearly added a third soon after, but his effort flew over the bar.

To their credit, Corinthians began to settle, with Fionn Molloy testing Barry O’Regan, whose handling throughout the 90 minutes was assured.

Fergus McDonald impressed for the visitors and almost created an opening for David O’Shaughnessy midway through the half, but McSweeney intervened with a crucial block.

Chances came at both ends, including a long-range Cronin effort that drifted wide, before Carrigaline struck again on 40 minutes.

Duggan was again the architect, setting up Rob Walker to make it 3-0 at the break.

Corinthians came out with renewed intent after the interval, but O’Regan was solid, dealing well with efforts from Liam McGrath and Molloy.

O’Donnell continued to trouble the visitors’ defence and came close to linking up again with McSweeney as Carrig looked to extend their advantage.

The introduction of Kevin Harrington added further impetus for the Ballea side and caused problems for the visitors.

He won a free on 70 minutes, which O’Donnell duly converted to put the result beyond doubt.

Carrigaline remained determined to keep a clean sheet, with their defence standing firm late on as Ben Quilligan attempted to set up Eoin Kilcommons.

Jack Mangan completed the scoring, capping a fine individual display as Carrigaline marched on.

Carrigaline United: B. O’Regan; C. Crotty, J. Mangan, K. Kavanagh, J. McSweeney, R. Walker, R. Duggan, A. Kingston, D. O’Keeffe, L. O’Donnell, C. Cronin.Subs: K. Harrington, J. Turner, S. Cotter.

College Corinthians: D. Ryan; S. Cantillon, C. McCarthy, F. McDonald, D. Fox, S. Fox, L. McGrath, J. Mouret, D. O’Shaughnessy, R. Moriarty, F. Molloy.Subs: B. Quilligan, E. Kilcommons, E. McCarthy, L. O’Dea, S. Cotter, J. Fox, A. O’Reilly.

Referee: M. Deasy

Carrigaline United who advance to the next round of the FA Junior Cup