Mallow Town close in on U15 double after cup joy at Turner's Cross
Mallow Town players celebrating against Corinthian Boys A in the Cork Schoolboys League U15 Dennehy's Health & Fitness Local Cup final at Turner's Cross. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Mallow Town 3 College Corinthians A 0
MALLOW Town lifted the Dennehy's Health and Fitness U15 Local Cup as they defeated a spirited College Corinthians A side 3-0 at Turner’s Cross on Thursday evening.
Goals from Aaron O’Flynn, Ryan Crowley, and Sean Óg McGuire proved to be the difference between the two sides as Mallow landed what they hope will be the first leg of a league and local cup double.
Town came into this showpiece occasion as the favourites as they currently lie one division and 14 places above Corinthians A in the Cork Schoolboys League.
They are also close to claiming the Gary Comerford U15 Premier League title but they started slowly here as they struggled to break through Corinthians’ stubborn defence.
It was Corinthians that went closest to taking the lead early on but after latching onto a long pass over the top, Tiernan Denieffe was unfortunate to see his lob over the keeper crash against the crossbar although the offside was eventually raised.
For a moment, the Mallow squad thought the ball was destined to drop into the back of the net at the Shed End and that it was going to stand but it seemed to spark them into life.
They had their first sight at goal moments later but after a corner was cleared to him on the edge of the penalty area, Crowley controlled the ball with his chest before sending his volley dropping just over.
The Red and Whites soon spurned a glorious opportunity to break the deadlock as Peter Ayodele mishit his shot when found by a superb cross from Gallilo Erhabor.
But it mattered little as Mallow would take the lead with 22 minutes on the clock when the alert O’Flynn was alive to Alex Uwumarogie’s sliced shot across the face of the goal and was on hand to turn the loose ball across the line.
Corinthians A needed to get into the half-time break without conceding again if they were to have any hope of mounting a comeback but before the interval, they needed their goalkeeper Raymond Foley Kiss to save Jamie McAuliffe’s close-range header from captain Eoin Howell’s cross.
Town remained on top at the beginning of the second period but the all-important second goal continued to elude them shortly after the restart as both Howell and then Erhabor fired over the bar from decent positions.
Erhabor thought he had made it 2-0 a couple of minutes later but his joy was short-lived as he was adjudged to have been standing in an offside position when he scored.
Corinthians battled until the end but it just wasn’t to be their night as they were desperately unlucky that both substitute Ciaran Lear’s and Ray Mullin’s attempts crashed against the woodwork.
Crowley would finally make it 2-0 when he expertly curled the ball into the far bottom left corner after great work by Jamie McAuliffe before McGuire sealed the win and the cup for Mallow with a thunderous close-range strike late on.
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