Super rivals are scoreless and inseparable
Castlebar Celtic's Oran Groarke holds off the challenge of Westport United's Jack Dawson. Picture: Castlebar Celtic FC
Nothing could separate the Mayo League’s biggest rivals as the county’s ‘El Clasico’ served up a stalemate last Thursday evening.
Both teams were coming into this game with 100% records and while both are no more, United will undoubtedly be the happier of the two sides in leaving the ground of the champions with a point.
It could have been all three deep in stoppage-time after brilliant work by Darren Browne saw him harry Bahso Hay and Cathal Coyne and dispossess the latter. Browne held off the challenge of both Celtic defenders before feeding the ball to substitute Evan Durkan on the edge of the penalty area only for his shot to go inches wide of the post.
Coyne, along with counterpart Noah Massey, were the best two players on the pitch, which is no surprise given the final score. The Celtic defender’s return to the club after over four years away in the United States has added greater depth to their defensive ranks while the young Massey was throwing his body at every opportunity in the second-half to deny the Hoops.
As always with these two, tackles were flying in from an early stage and neither would give the other an inch, as evidenced when Jack Dawson nailed Jordan Loftus with a crunching challenge. Loftus immediately got up and nudged Dawson in the shoulder but the young star was not bowing down.
The first-half saw neither goalkeeper properly tested. Westport United were playing some of the more incisive football but Celtic always looked dangerous. The crossfield diagonal balls of full-backs Mark Cunningham and Mark Howley were a constant threat for United to deal with while Jason Hunt had both Mark McDonagh and Harrison Quinn on the back foot.
At the other end, Dawson and Kitterick were both probing and stretching but neither could find way past the centre-back duo of Coyne and Ioseph O’Reilly. Darren Browne was quiet until the last ten minutes of the half as he began to find pockets of space but his final ball let him down.
Celtic rattled the crossbar on 62 minutes, although the flag went up for offside, after a quick move involving Dylan Edwards and Jordan Loftus put through Luke Kelly.
Chances began to open up for Celtic and Hunt was next to try his luck after his trademark cut inside past Harrison Quinn but Cillian McGlade flung his body in front of goal to deny him.
Another two chances fell to Loftus, both of which were down the throat of Cunningham. As the Connacht Cup finalists pushed forward more, United almost caught them on the counter. Cillian White lifted the ball over the Celtic backline into Kitterick but Hester was equal to his strike.
Dawson let fly with a wild shot in stoppage time before Durkan nearly sent the United travelling support into raptures only to see his shot go wide with Hester beaten.
