Arklow Town vs Aughrim Rangers U 18 Wexford Cup

 U18 Wexford Cup 

Arklow Town 2

Aughrim Rangers 0 

Eoin Horkan

Travers Insurance Park

 

For anyone in attendance at this Friday night game under lights was treated to a great soccer match against  local rivals . Under heavy fog the referee John Carton  gave the go ahead to play the game .

 

This game started  off at 100 miles an hour with both sides putting each other under pressure early on . This pressure resulted in early chances for both teams with both goalkeepers coming out on top in the opening exchanges . Arklow were controlling the middle of the park, but the visitors always looked dangerous on the break . This proved to be the case when Laci Shannon latched onto a through ball to open her and her teams account for the night in the 28^th minute . Aughrim started to control the play after the goal with Shannon being the main danger . Her header from close range looped over the crossbar in the 34^th minute .  From the next play Shannon picked up the ball in the middle of the field and slalomed through the defence before finishing expertly into the corner of the net .

As the game petered towards half time and Aughrim looking well value for there lead the tide turned with the last play of the half . Arklow winger Niamh Kavanagh chased down what looked like a lost cause . As the defender tried to clear it Kavanagh’s leg managed to divert the ball into the net giving her side hope heading into the break.

Arklow looked like a different team after the whistle as they started looking for the equaliser . After a couple of early half chances, they still couldn’t make a breakthrough. In the 51^st minute the ball landed at the feet of Anna Byrne , who coolly   slotted the ball into the side netting to level the tie. With the game now in the melting pot and both sides creating half chances but nothing meaningful it was hard to see where the next goal was coming from . This was until Aughrim’s Abigail Whitney drove the wing , her cross come shot luckily looped over the home side’s keeper to give the away side the lead again in the 59^th minute. With thirty  minutes left in the game and subs being rolled on and off Aughrim were able to call on a Romanian u17 trialist Ana Dragusm who along with the aforementioned Shannon controlled the game till nearly the end . As the Town pushed forward Shannon broke away and finished the game off as a contest , while completing her hat trick at the same time .

Moments later the referee blew the final whistle giving the visitors a well deserved win .

 

Arklow Town : 1 Emilija Joncaite, 4, Amy Morgan, 5 Farrin Wholohan , 6 Ava O’ Brien, 7 Caoimhe Appeleby,8 Anna Byrne 11, Niamh Kavanagh, 9 Ciara Lancaster , 10 Amber Cronin Kenny, 13 Erin Barden, 12 Lizzie Bourke.

Subs Used 15: Micheala O’ Reily

 Aughrim Rangers :1 Niamh Whelan 13, Aoife Campbell, 3 Livia McDonagh,4 Shauna Rochford, 5, Alice Kirwan, 6 Leah O’Hare, 14 Willow Jordan, 8 Aoife Stafford, 15 Rebecca McCarthy, 10 Ciara Connolly, 11 Molly Hynes

Subs Used :  2 Ana Dragusm,  7 Laci Jane Shannon, 9 Abigail Whitney

Referee John Carton