Goals from Kyle O’Callaghan and Corey Ryan see Cathedral Celtic cruise past UCC B

Cathedral Celtic 5

UCC B 1

A brace each from Kyle O’Callaghan and Corey Ryan saw Cathedral Celtic cruise past UCC B to lift the City Challenge Cup after a convincing 5-1 victory at the MTU.

Although any one of the 11 Cathedral players could have got the man-of-the-match award, it eventually went to Scott O’Callaghan who was a constant thorn in the sides of the UCC B defence over the 90 minutes.

Cathedral wasted little time with making their intentions known and found themselves in front after just five minutes when from Johnnie O’Sullivan’s corner, Ivan Skillington headed home while unattended in the box.

Cathedral threatened again minutes later when Kyle O’Callaghan twisted and turned before forcing an excellent save from Ger O’Connell with his crisply struck effort.

Kyle O’Callaghan threatened again when he collected from Scott O’Callaghan to fire a decent effort narrowly wide before Michael Blake brought a point-blank save from O’Connell.

The UCC B keeper was certainly the busier of the two net-minders and soon again he had to make a solid save from Johnnie O’Sullivan before dealing with a rasping effort from the impressive Scott O’Callaghan.

The inevitable happened on 23 minutes though as Cathedral doubled their advantage – Kyle O’Callaghan showed good control before weaving his way through to slide past Ger O’Connell for number two.

Brice Pinel almost found a way through for UCC B, but a sharp tackle from Eoin O’Connell ensured that would not happen.

Scott O’Callaghan won good possession in the final third before skipping past a couple of tackles to fire over from outside the box.

UCC B threatened in the opening minutes of the second period and when Ali Ammidat crossed low for Brice Pinel, he was denied by Luke O’Mahony who was in the right place to make a clearance.

A strong run then from Scott O’Callaghan saw him slalom past two opponents before being foiled when Walter Messina threw his body on the line to produce a solid block, shortly before Michael Blake scooped into the arms of Ger O’Connell from close range.

Cathedral were dealt a blow after that when Michael Blake was shown a second yellow around 50 minutes.

This opened the door a little bit for UCC B and they were unlucky when Ali Ammidat smacked the upright with a rifling effort from his free kick before Scott O’Callaghan’s effort to curl one into the corner was gathered by Ger O’Connell at the other end.

Corey Ryan was introduced into the action shortly after and made an immediate impression when his effort whistled agonisingly past the post.

But, when Kyle O’Callaghan gathered from a long ball by Kristian O’Sullivan, he produced a lovely clean finish to make it 3-0 on 68.

And he could have completed his hat-trick soon after, but from the spot, he failed to beat Ger O’Connell after Scott O’Callaghan was tripped up inside the box.

Then, on 85 minutes, a magnificent early through ball into space by Scott O’Callaghan, picked out the run of Corey Ryan who set off towards goal before coolly slotting past the advancing Ger O’Connell for number four.

Cory Ryan really proved his worth as a substitute when he dinked over Ger O’Connell for Cathedral’s fifth before Mick Morris got one near the end for UCC B..

Cathedral Celtic: Kristian O’Sullivan, Eoin O’Connell, Evan Leahy, Luke O’Mahony, Morgan O’Connor, Johnnie O’Sullivan, Ivan Skillington, Scott O’Callaghan, Kyle O’Callaghan, Michael Blake and Dale Dalton.

Subs: Corey Ryan for Dale Donoghue 57), Robbie Leahy for Kyle O’Callaghan (75), Denis McCarthy for Evan Leahy (76), Sean O’Mahony for Ivan Skillington (78), Craig Downey for Eoin O’Connell (84).

UCC B: Ger O’Connell, John |Houlihan, David Foley, Walter Messina, Jack Murphy, Paul Murphy, Gokhan Dumlupinar, Matt Ellis, Ali Ammidat, Brice Pinel and Kieran Maher.

Subs: Mick Morris for John Houlihan (60), Eoin Gunnigle for Matt Ellis (68).

Referee: Sumate Virak.

Assistants: Keith Haines, Jim Hennessy and Brendan O’Regan.