MSL soccer: St Mary's see off College Corinthians in Centenary Senior Cup

St Mary’s 3

College Corinthians 0

ST Mary’s sealed their place in the third round of the Centenary Senior Cup with a deserved 3-0 win over College Corinthians at St Mary’s Park.

It’s not the start that the premier division title hopefuls would have wanted, but they can have no complaints about the result.

Corinthians struggled to impose their passing game on their hosts, particularly in the first half, at the end of which the Saints had a 2-0 lead.

Chances were scarce until Mary’s opened the scoring midway through the half when Trevor Harrington got on the end of a delivery from the left and, from just outside the penalty area, he planted the ball beyond Corinthians’ keeper James Kirby and into the corner of the net.

Five minutes later Mary’s struck again, with another cross from the left, following a kick-out by goalkeeper Ryan Delaney. This time Kyle O’Callaghan applied the finish with a neat touch at the near side of the penalty area.

Corinthians hadn’t shown anything of note in front of goal up to that point, though Delaney had to be alert to pounce on an Ian Turner pull-back from the endline in the box as Craig Donnellan threatened to pounce.

Mary’s continued to pose more of a threat than their visitors and a measured Ronan Murphy through ball almost put Fionn Kelly through on goal, but defender Dave O’Connor got across to cut out the danger at the expense of a corner.

From the flag kick, the ball was cleared but only as far as Harrington who tried to lift it over Kirby, but it went too high and dropped over the crossbar.

Corinthians had a couple of efforts late in the half; Killian Cooper had a long-range effort that went wide and in the final minute Cooper turned provider, sending Turner clear on the right side of the penalty area, but Delaney made a good save.

Corinthians sprung former Cork City man Stephen Beattie and Evan Browne from the bench at half-time and the visitors enjoyed a lot more possession in the second period.

However, there was very little end product and Corinthians were restricted to hopeful long-range efforts as Mary’s seemed content to sit deep and defend stoutly.

Browne and Deasy had shots from outside the box go well off target, while Delaney easily held a Rob Walsh free.

Turner also saw a long-range shot miss the target, though Deasy had an effort go inches wide after some good build-up play as Corinthians tried to salvage something from the game.

However, St Mary’s coped with whatever Corinthians threw at them while remaining a threat.

On 74 minutes, Mary’s sub Lorcan Cahoon had a shot inside the penalty area blocked by Kirby and when the recycled ball fell for the Mary’s man again, he struck the side-netting from a difficult angle.

Time was running out for Corinthians and Mary’s put the result beyond doubt late on when Jason Conway drilled the ball home from inside the penalty area in a goalmouth scramble that included two goal-line clearances and a header that came back off the crossbar before falling to the Saints captain.

Mary’s will travel to Lakewood Athletic in the third round after the Ovens club won 5-1 away to Carrigtwohill United.

Kenny Murphy was the hat-trick hero for Lakewood who also scored through David Courtney and Killian McCarthy, while Darragh McCann was on target for the home side.

ST MARY’S: Ryan Delaney, Dean O’Sullivan, Alex Hill, Shane Conway, Cian McCarthy, Trevor Harrington, Ronan Murphy, Jason Conway, Kyle O’Callaghan, Fionn Kelly, Jack Singleton.

Subs: Ryan O’Gorman for Singleton (59), Cian Browne and Lorcan Cahoon for O’Sullivan and O’Callaghan (both 72), David Dunphy and Scott Hurley for Murphy and Kelly (both 82).

COLLEGE CORINTHIANS: James Kirby, Dave O’Connor, Rob Walsh, Andrew Neville, Eoghan Murphy, Craig Donnellan, Paul Deasy, Ross McCarthy, Killian Cooper, Owen Collins, Ian Turner.

Subs: Evan Browne and Stephen Beattie for Cooper and O'Connor (both half-time), Michael Carroll for McCarthy (69).

Referee: Dan Deady.