Celtic too strong as El Clasico fails to catch light
Castlebar Celtic’s Mark Cunningham heads goalwards as Westport United defend a corner during last Sunday's Benson Cup semi-final at Celtic Park. Pictures: John Corless
Castlebar Celtic booked their place in the Benson Cup final, where they will meet Glenhest Rovers, following an easy three-goal victory over arch-rivals Westport United on Sunday.
Celtic were hungrier than their rivals and richly deserved the win. The result was built on their control in key areas of the pitch, particularly midfield, and their ability to capitalise on defensive errors. Westport United struggled to recover after conceding cheaply early on and were never really in the game.
The opening goal came on 17 minutes when Mark Cunningham headed home from a Jason Hunt free-kick. It was a terrible goal for Westport to concede. The set-piece had initially been taken and identically finished by Cunningham, before referee Eric Eaton ordered a retake following an infringement. When the free-kick was delivered again moments later, Cunningham once more found space to head past the goalkeeper and give Celtic the lead. This took the concept of not learning from your mistakes to a new level, and Westport never recovered from that concession.
Celtic continued to impose themselves and doubled their advantage on the half-hour mark. Oran Murphy collected in midfield, drove forward unchallenged, and struck from outside the box to finish an impressive individual move.
Five minutes later, Celtic went three-up when Dylan Felle capitalised when Westport goalkeeper Gary Cunningham was caught off his line, lifting the ball over him from outside the box.
Westport had chances before the interval. Darren Browne directed Dylan O’Malley’s free-kick towards goal only for the effort to strike teammate Mikie O’Brien. O’Brien, Browne and Cillian White also sent opportunities over the crossbar.
Westport started the second-half positively, too. Jack Dawson struck the crossbar while Ben Murphy produced an important clearance from the goal line to deny Noah Massey's header. At the other end, Johnny Cocozza and Oran Murphy both threatened for Celtic.
Substitute Darragh Reynolds delivered a diagonal pass to O’Brien, who volleyed over, and Celtic continued to create openings, with Mark Cunningham sending a cross too close to Gary Cunningham, while Felle rounded the goalkeeper but was unable to apply the finish before running out of space. Danny Ajenipa also missed the target from a promising position.
Celtic’s fourth goal came after excellent work from Mark Cunningham on the wing. His delivery found substitute Lerlah Hay, who finished neatly, to put the outcome beyond doubt.
Westport did manage a late consolation. Substitute Mark McDonagh produced an excellent diagonal cross that narrowly evaded Dawson, but fellow substitute Cian Halpin was on hand to turn the ball home.
Celtic produced a composed and efficient display across the ninety minutes. Their transition from defence to attack is exemplary. Defensively, Mark Cunningham, Ioseph O’Reilly, Brian Walsh and Paul McDermott were solid, while Ben Murphy provided protection in front of the back four. Oran Murphy and Johnny Cocozza were outstanding in midfield, and Felle continued his recent scoring form. Hunt and Ajenipa also made important contributions in wide areas as Celtic progressed to the final.
Contrast that with the lacklustre performance of Westport United. None of their key players were on it on Sunday and they were unable to deal with Celtic’s midfield. They were punished for their mistakes and were unable to vary their play to try and break Celtic down.
Castlebar Celtic skipper, Ioseph O'Reilly said that this was their fourth game in 14 days.
“I think it stood to us that we had so many games,” he told the Western People. “We looked sharper. I thought we looked by far the better team. When we got on the ball, we took our chances. We were very clinical. I don't think they threatened us too much until the last few minutes of the first half and probably there the last 10, 15 minutes of the second when the game was really dead and buried.
“We’re happy with it; we kind of set out to right a wrong from the league game where they kind of turned us over here at home, and said we're not going to let that happen and there's people writing us off left and right but we're sitting at the top of the league. We're into the first cup final of the year, so I don't think we're doing too badly now. We can kind of build on that from now on with a few more players to come back.” Jason McCartney, the Westport United manager, said the result was very tough to take.
“I thought we'd give them a better game than we did, but we didn't step up today. We didn't win the second balls. We weren't picking up what we should have been. In fairness to Castlebar, they were at it. They were on the front foot; they were breaking at us. They were snapping at us all the time. They were well up for it. I suppose after the last time here when we beat them, we knew they were going to be like that. But unfortunately our lads today didn't match that.” When asked why he thought that was, McCartney suggested it might be fear. “Maybe it's a bit of self-belief. But we need to knock that out. There shouldn't be any of that in these lads. They're young lads. They have a lot of future ahead of them. But we keep seeing that. And, you know, they have to start maturing and they have to start forgetting about these little things mentality-wise.
“I just think that we were just off it today. It was like we were in half positions. We weren't sure where to go. But we did the preparation. We knew what they were going to be about. Celtic have great players, they know where they'll be, they know where they're going, and they can hurt teams. So fair play to them, but we need to be quicker at reacting to second balls, we need to be quicker in transitions, which I don't think we were today.” Castlebar Celtic: S Hester; M Cunningham, I O’Reilly, B Walsh, P McDermott: B Murphy (K Redmond 59), J Cocozza, O Murphy; J Hunt (B McHale 81), D Felle (S Gavin 82), D Ajenipa (L Hay 60).
Westport U: G Cunningham; C McGlade (M McDonagh 87), N Massey, C White , A Halpin (S Casey 46): M O’Brien 55; C O’Toole (D Reynolds 46), J Dawson, Dylan O’Malley (C Halpin 72); D Browne (Dan O’Malley 69), K Kitterick.
REF: Eric Eaton
