McCarthy Insurance junior cup round 3

Match Report 

BT Harps 7 -2 Cloughjordan 

Friday night saw us travel to Templemore for a tough challenge against premier division side BT Harps. In very windy conditions the game got underway and as expected BT applied the pressure early and they grabbed an early goal on 6 minutes. However Cloughjordan didn’t drop their heads and started to play their way into the game. The lads won a free kick just inside BT’s half. Jack Keane delivered a ball into the BT box which fell to Stuart Fox who slotted home to draw us back level after 17 minutes of play. 

The first half went back and forth with both teams having chances but neither been able to capitalise on them untill just before the half time break when BT made it 2-1. Again the lads weren’t willing to back down and they pressed forward with Stuart Fox getting a break away down the right side after a ball over the top, Stuart squared the ball across into the path of Darren stokes who was running in one on one with the BT keeper and Darren placed the ball past him and into the goal. Unfortunately for us the ref disallowed the goal saying Darren was ahead of the ball when it was squared across even though he was well behind it. BT went into the half 2-1 up. 

Second half 

 It was Cloughjordan who came out flying after the break. They were pressing forward when the play came to Cian Darcy’s feet and he looked up to spot the BT keeper off his line and to one side of his goal, Cian let fly a wonder strike from about 40 yards out and found the net to pull us back level again. As the game progressed Cloughjordan had a few more chances which they could not finish , but BT showed their quality and finally took full control of the game and went ahead around the hour mark. The lads tried to get back level and kept pushing forward an equaliser but BT added another goal before the 70 minute to make it 4-2. Cloughjordan put in a great effort throughout this game but the size of the pitch and tiredness starting to set in allowed space to open up and BT been as shrewd with the ball as they are knew how to utilise this and made it 5-2 with 10 mins left in the game. They went on to add two more goals before the final whistle which put the score at 7-2. BT Harps were clinical with their finishing. 

BT Harps are a very good side and our lads put it up to them and surprised everyone with their performance. It was a great team effort and the lads can be proud even though the scoreline suggests the game was one sided which is far from the case. 

Best for cloughjordan were Danny Parker , Cian Darcy , Stuart Fox but the whole squad put in a great performance. 

Best of luck to BT Harps in the next round.