Bridge United march on

Bridge United     3        Killarney Athletic    2
BRIDGE United moved into the fifth round of the FAI Junior Cup when they accounted for Killarney Athletic at the County Grounds in Doora on Sunday.

Their reward for their latest victory is another home tie, this time against Dublin club, TEK FC from the Leinster Senior League. The game will take place on January 6. Victory in that tie will mean an away game in the sixth round against Crettyard FC (Carlow) or Westport United (Mayo) on January 12/13.

Last Sunday’s victory was merited and the winning margin could have been greater. After a somewhat nervous start, during which the visitors had a couple of opportunities, the Clare side, the only club from the Clare league remaining in the race for the prestigious title, settled and took a merited lead after 36 minutes.

A Jonathon Downes cross caused all sorts of problems for the Killarney defence and Darragh Murphy fired home the lead goal. The lead lasted just eight minutes and the concession of the equaliser is something that will concern the winners’ defence and, particularly, goalkeeper John Mulready.

He had just won possession and was preparing to deliver a long clearance when a lapse in concentration saw his effort rebound off the back of a Killarney player and the ball fell kindly for David Gleeson, who had the simple task of tapping it into an empty net.

Protests from the home side that the goal should have been disallowed were waved away by experienced official Martin O’Brien, leaving the teams deadlocked at the break at 1-1 each.

The Clare representatives stepped up their performance in the second half and were back in front seven minutes after the resumption of play. The visitors’ goalie and one of his backs appeared to get their calls mixed up and the attempted clearance from a cross was picked up by Trevor Maxwell who calmly, from just over 30 yards, found the net for the goal of the game.

Midway through the half, they doubled their advantage when Mike McNamara headed home following a Darragh Fitzgerald cross.

They should have added to their tally before Killarney pulled one back with five minutes remaining when substitute Eddie O’Sullivan headed past Mulready following a corner.

Bridge United: John Mulready; Jonathon Downes, Stephen Steward, Darragh Murphy, Christy Griffin; Darragh Fitzgerald, Eric Carr, Adrian White, Mike McNamara, Kieran Quinlan, Trevor Maxwell.
Subs: Jason White for Steward, Jonathon Hayes for Quinlan and Damian Murray for Carr.

Killarney Athletic: Rafe; Conor Farrell, Brian Nealon, James Coffey, Timmy Sullivan, Alan O’Sullivan; Cian Tobín, Lucas Polack, David Gleeson, Matthew Grimley, Shane Braughan.
Sub: Eddie Sullivan for Braughan.
Referee: Martin O’Brien.