Sobering return for Duffy as Castlebar Celtic run riot in Junior Cup
Castlebar Celtic's Niall Brennan rises highest to head home the second goal. Picture: John Corless
The scale of Mick Duffy’s task, as he returns as Ballina Town manager, was very evident on Sunday when his side was thrashed by a rampant Castlebar Celtic in the first round of the FAI Junior Cup. Admittedly Celtic are the best side in Connacht at the moment, and Town were missing a few. The positives Duffy can take are that his side kept playing despite the unfolding enormity of the task in front of them. They were disciplined too, except for a rash moment when Jamie Moyles deliberately prevented the ball going into the Ballina net with his hand, and received the mandatory red card – just under an hour into the contest.
Town were unlucky too. A penalty awarded to Celtic, five minutes before the break, could as easily have been a free kick to Town. Celtic’s Luke Kelly and Town goalkeeper, Emmet Peyton, clashed near the edge of the box. The referee pointed to the spot; Peyton protested, and when the emotions settled, Jordan Loftus blasted the penalty to the net. They made it two-nil after as Niall Brennan had jumped cleanly to head home Luke Kelly’s cross half an hour in. But you make your luck in football, and Celtic were superior and deserved the two-goal lead.
Celtic were more clinical in the second half, adding four more to make this their biggest win over Town for many years. Loftus beat the Town’s offside line to turn provider for Kelly to add the third, on 52 minutes. Four minutes later, Loftus scored his second penalty after the Moyles incident.
Kelly scored again after Hunt broke. When Town had committed bodies forward in an attempt to get one back, and Eoghan Hughes, off the bench, added the sixth near the end after confusion in the Ballina defence.
Town lined out with youngsters, Ashton Judge and Daire O’Connor, in the defence, and another youngster, Ted Rowe, in the middle. Rowe picked up an injury and was replaced by Cathair Tighe – another youngster. All four played well, as did Conor Gorman.
Despite the dominance of Celtic’s midfield of Oran Groarke, Niall Brennan and man of the match Johnnie Cocozza. Duffy will be encouraged by the young players but he’ll need a few more to strengthen and deepen the squad.
Celtic were very impressive and were at full-strength. Their subs bench included Dylan Edwards, Cathal Coyne, Fionn Mahon, Mark Howley, Paul Walsh, Eoghan Hughes and Peter Basquille. Standing beside them, outside the wall, were Ben Murphy and Liam Flatley. Any of these would not only walk onto most Mayo teams, they would be amongst the best players there. Celtic’s squad depth is one of their real strengths. All of their players are comfortable on the ball. They have great pace, and their forward line of Jason Hunt, Jordan Loftus and Luke Kelly is as good as there is in junior football.
Duffy will have to plan without Donagh Crowne and Raff Cretaro, both of whom have returned to the Sligo/Leitrim League for the winter. They have worryingly-long injuries to Jamie Cawley and Benny Lavelle, and Dylan McKee, whist playing up to this match, is carrying injury too. There’s talk of the imminent departure of Chris Moore. On Sunday, Town were missing the steel of Chris Maughan, Niall Casey and Dan Gorman, all of whom were rested. That’s a lot of players to have to replace all at once.
Mick Duffy knows his job. Town will be fine with him at the reins, but it’ll take a while.
“When you take over a new job, you have to realise that it is going to take time,” Duffy told the Western People after the game. “We had a new team out today with sixteen-year-olds and ‘B’ team players against the best team in the province, and you can see Celtic’s confidence. They are flying and we are at the other end of the spectrum at the moment. But we will be okay.
“I was impressed with our young players today. I thought they played well in difficult circumstances. That’s the reason I stepped into the job, just before this match. I wanted to see today, the character of the team. We battled hard for the ninety minutes.”
Town goalkeeper Emmet Peyton said it was a disappointing scoreline. “We can’t beat ourselves up too much,” he said. “We are in massive transition and we were facing one of the best teams in the country at the moment, so it was always going to be difficult.”
Johnnie Cocozza said Celtic worked really hard for the result. “There’s crazy competition for places on this team. You only have to look at the bench. We have two teams really, so everyone works really hard. I don’t think it would make any difference what team they had out – I think the result would be just the same.”
