Five-star Douglas Hall sweep Mungret aside in Munster U17 Cup

Douglas Hall 5 Mungret Regional 0

Douglas Hall are still unbeaten in all competitions and advanced to the Munster U17 Cup quarter-final at Moneygourney on Saturday evening.

The Hall were far the more dominant team as they were physically too strong for the young Limerick side and led 3-0 at half-time with goals from Tom Collins and a brace from Macdarragh Lynch. However, it could have been worse for Mungret but goalkeeper Eoghan Ryan pulled off some incredible saves.

The pattern of the game didn’t change much in the second half as Hall added two more goals with Lynch completing his hat-trick and Clayton Tait also netting.

The Hall were quick out of the blocks and went in front inside the opening three minutes. Finn Doyle played a delightful through ball for Macdarragh Lynch to race onto and he kept his composure. 

They were two up in the 12th minute. Shane Barrett chased a hopeful ball into the corner and pulled it back to Tom Collins on the edge of the Mungret box, who smashed his effort high into the roof of the net. 

The Hall were putting the visitors under all sorts of pressure with their high press and came very close to a third goal when Eoin McCarthy found Darragh O’Flaherty with a peach of a pass but Ryan did well to push it over the bar. Ryan was called into action again for the visitors five minutes later when he had to get down to his right to send Vilson Sefolli's powerful effort around the post. 

After another excellent passage of play, Doyle threaded a wonderful through ball to Sefolli inside the Mungret box but Charlie Tobin came up with a very timely block to nick the ball off his toe. 

Hall were awarded a penalty when Lynch was upended. He dusted himself down to calmly send Ryan the wrong way from the spot.

The home side didn’t let up at the start of the second half and came close to extending their lead when Doyle picked up a loose ball but his rocket of a shot came crashing back off the crossbar. 

They did increase their lead in the 60th minute. McCarthy made a strong run but Ryan parried his effort away. Lynch was quick to react and smashed the rebound to the net to complete his hat-trick. 

The young Limerick side were struggling to deal with the very efficient hosts and when the Hall captain Darragh O’Flaherty saw sight of goal from 30 yards, it took another wonderful save from Ryan to punch his powerful drive around the post. 

Ryan certainly played a captain’s role for Murgret as he was just incredible between the posts.

Still, the Hall went 5-0 in front in the 90th minute when their centre-back Clayton Tait danced his way past four Mungret defenders he steered his home from the edge of the box.

DOUGLAS HALL: Noel Cantwell, Jamie O’Halloran, Darragh O’Flaherty, Clayton Tait, Mark Keeshan, Finn Doyle, Shane Barrett, Tom Collins, Vilson Sefolli, Eoin McCarthy, Macdarragh Lynch.

Subs: Cillian Ross for Collins (51), Thomas Carroll for Doyle (58), Eoin Canty for Lynch (65), Kevin Healy for O’Halloran (68).

MUNGRET REGIONAL: Eoghan Ryan, Faris Khairul-Hisham, Charlie Tobin, Shayan Malik, Mikolaj Sznajder, Samuel Gilmore, Sam Cusack, Arya Akbari, Eoin Moriarty, Lewis Newbigging, Anthony Davicijonas.

Sub: Alex O’Doherty for Davicijonas (h-t).

Referee: Dave Finnegan.