An Eoin McCarthy brace sees Douglas Hall beat Corinthians and remain unbeaten in the U17 league

Douglas Hall 3 

College Corinthians 0

Douglas Hall remain undefeated in all competitions after they beat College Corinthians three nil in a Daly Industrial Supplies U17 Premier League game at a very wet Moneygourney last Saturday evening.

The game was level 0-0 at the half time break, however, the Hall had to be thankful for some superb goalkeeping by Noel Cantwell as he pulled off some incredible saves for his side to keep the game scoreless.

The Hall took the lead 1-0 five minutes from the restart when MacDarragh Lynch scored from close range. 

Things got worse for Corinthians two minutes later when David Clarke-O’Mahony received a second yellow card and was sent off. 

Douglas used the extra man to their advantage and increased their lead to 2-0 when Eoin McCarthy scored in the 64th minute. 

McCarthy added his second goal of the game and the Hall’s third five minutes later to see them go second in the league table on 28 points, three points behind Midleton, however, they has two games in hand.

It was a tense opening to the game with both sides showing some early nerves, however, after a good passage of play the Hall’s Eoin McCarthy crossed a beautiful ball for MacDarragh Lynch to get his head to, but Corinthians keeper Alex Daly made a good save. 

The home side came close again in the 13th minute, this time Lynch turned provider when he squared an inch perfect ball for McCarthy but his effort was struck straight at Daly to make a comfortable save. 

McCarthy came close to the breakthrough for Douglas ten minutes later when he showed great control to chest the ball down, but his effort was pushed around the post by Daly. Corinthians then came more into the game and were very dangerous on the break and when Charlie O’Riordan played a delightful through ball for Diarmuid Kelly to run on to in the 30th minute, it took a brave save from Noel Cantwell to flick his effort away from goal. 

The visitors had another good opportunity to break the deadlock two minutes later when Kasper Perdas found space on the edge of the box, however, Cantwell got down to his right to push his effort around the post. 

Cantwell was called into action again in the 44th minute when he had to dive at full stretch to save Kelly’s effort from the edge of the box.

The Hall made a bright start to the second half and took the lead 1-0 in the 50th minute when Lynch scored a fine goal from a difficult angle. 

Two minutes later Corinthians were reduced to 10 men when David Clarke-O’Mahony was send off by referee Timmy Kelleher after picking up his second yellow card. 

Corinthians responded well after that setback and came close to levelling the game in the 58th minute, James McCarthy picked up a loose ball outside the box and he forced a superb save from Cantwell in the Hall goal. 

On the other side of the pitch Douglas increased their lead 2-0 six minutes later, Elvis Alade broke from the middle of the park and his initial was saved by Daly McCarthy was on hand to stroke home the rebound. 

The Hall went three nil up in the 70th minute, Shane Barrett done well to beat two defenders on the right wing, he lifted his head to find McCarthy free inside the box to score his second goal of the game. 

In fairness to Corinthians, they battled hard all over the pitch, however, Daly who was superb all game for them even though he conceded three goals made another excellent save to deny the Hall’s Vilson Sefolli.

DOUGLAS HALL: Noel Cantwell, Jamie O’Halloran, Darragh O’Flaherty, Mark Keeshan, Clayton Tait, Finn Doyle, Shane Barrett, James Dollard-Young, Elvis Alade, Eoin McCarthy, Macdarragh Lynch.

Subs: Luke Murray for Dollard-Young (66), Vilson Sefolli for Alade (66), Cillian Ross for Doyle (81).

COLLEGE CORINTHIANS: Alex Daly, Fionn Power, Ryan Dunne, Mathew O’Sullivan, Charlie O’Riordan, Kacper Perdas, David Clarke-O’Mahony, Diarmuid Kelly, Alex Morley, James McCarthy, Cormac Sheehan.

Subs: Killian Kennedy for Dunne (ht), Sean Flemming-Byrne for Perdas (70), Chris Scully for Kelly (70), Favour Kennedy for McCarthy (82).

Referee: Timmy Kelleher.