Celtic move step closer to clean sweep
Castlebar Celtic's Shane Cunningham beats Duane McDonnell of Conn Rangers to the ball. Picture: John Corless
Conn Rangers have had difficulty with Castlebar Celtic all season. Their two league meetings didn’t go well, and while last Sunday’s Calor Cup semi-final was a slight improvement in scoreline, there was a gulf between these sides.
Celtic have won the league, the Connacht Cup and the Westaro Cup. It is difficult to see them not adding this cup to their cabinet, unless Ballina Town – winners of the other semi-final – can find something really special at Milebush on September 8.
“We made silly mistakes,” Rangers’ coach, Mark Togher, told the Western People, after the final whistle. “You can’t make mistakes against Celtic and expect to get away with them.” Rangers needed an early goal to have any chance in this match. Instead, it was Celtic who went in front after five minutes, when man of the match, Niall Brennan, met Dylan Edwards’s cross, to head past Brian McMahon.
Jordan Loftus got the first of his three on thirteen minutes when he followed up and tapped-in, when McMahon could only parry, Johnnie Cocozza’s shot.
Celtic’s Paul Walsh got his marching orders from referee Damien McGrath for illegal contact with the shin of Rangers’ captain, Owen McNamara, which left the big man on the deck. The reduction in numbers made no difference, except possibly to Walsh, who had to watch, rather than participate, in proceedings.
Loftus’s second was from the penalty spot, after he hit the ground under pressure from three Rangers defenders. McMahon went the right way, but the power of the shot was too much. At 3-0 the game was over.
Rangers were out first, for the second half, but their enthusiasm didn’t translate to the scoreboard.
Edwards lobbed accurately from distance for the fourth, thirteen minutes after the restart and a crazy four-minute spell saw Celtic add three more goals as Rangers’ heads dropped. They were simply overwhelmed by their hosts. The heat of the day and a scarcity of substitutes didn’t help their plight.
Loftus completed his hat-trick with a blast of pace to get in behind the Rangers defence, after good work by Mark Howley. Substitutes, Keith Mulchrone and Luke Kelly added to Rangers’ woes with goals near the end.
Rangers had a few chances to get on the board, nearly all of which fell to Cian Kilcoyne, but most of his efforts failed to hit the target. On another day, against different opposition, the headlines would have been all about him.
“We had poor quality passes,” Togher said. “We under hit passes; we didn’t engage in the right areas. We let Celtic lads, who are high quality players, get the ball on to their stronger foot in danger zones. We didn’t track runners. The first goal, coming so early, spooked us. There’s no hiding from it – we have had a couple of heavy beatings from Celtic this year and we put a lot of preparation into today, and the first goal was a big setback for us, mentally.
"Then with them going a man down, we committed the cardinal sin of conceding a penalty. There was a mountain to climb for us after that, because they keep the ball so well. They are technically very, very good and we found it hard to win the ball, and when we did, we found it hard to create any clear chances.”
Celtic coach Declan Flynn said that Celtic has no divine right to win games. “It comes from hard work,” he said. “Hard work on the pitch, hard work in training and what the lads do in between training sessions. An awful lot goes in to a result like that and people often only see the scoreline and don’t realise the behind the scenes work that goes in.”
Celtic were good all over the park with Brennan, Loftus and right-sided Basho Hay especially catching the eye. Kilcoyne was always available for Rangers, and Mikey McHale battled well. Sixteen-year-old Adam Naughton, made his debut at left back and had a good game.
