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26 January 2012
Soccer: Fitzy shows his class to ensure Bohs’ cup passage By Adrian Flanagan at Ben Wadding Park
Umbro FAI Youth Cup BOHEMIANS 2 (PATRICK FITZGERALD `23 & MARK O’KEEFFE PEN `28) VILLA 1 (JOSH AIMIUHI `37)
FOLLOWING their thrilling win over Ringmahon Rangers in the Munster Youth Cup, Bohemians have also progressed to the next stage of the Umbro FAI Youth cup when they over-came the challenge of Villa in the Poleberry Derby at Ben Wadding Park on Sunday afternoon last. The home side always held the upper hand in this game after racing into a two goals to nil lead by the midway point of the first half and although the visitors pulled a goal back before the half time whistle, they never looked like finding the equalising in the second half. Why? The performance of Bohemians central defender Patrick Fitzgerald was probably the main reason to why the Connor’s Park outfit were unable to force the issue as he was quite simply superb once again at the heart of the defence. With Villa trying to get a levelling goal, Fitzgerald won header after header before also putting in a superb last ditch tackle on the edge of the penalty area to deny Gavin Purcell as he charged forward in search of an equaliser late on. In a man of the match performance, Fitzgerald picked out Niall McCabe with a magnificent through ball after only six minutes and when the striker cut in from the left side of the penalty area, his right-footed effort whistled inches wide of the far post. The central defender was again in the thick of the action again on 11 minutes when his pass found Emmett Carroll, who sent McCabe in the clear but despite beating the offside trap, his acute angled effort was just off target as the home side bossed the opening exchanges. There was nothing that the Villa keeper Aidan Purcell could do to deny Bohemians going in front on 23 minutes when Niall McCabe whipped in an excellent left-wing corner kick that found the head of Patrick Fitzgerald and he powered an unstoppable header to the net from eight yards. Things got even better for the home side when they doubled their lead from the penalty spot less than five minutes later when Fitzgerald’s long ball out to the left saw Niall McCabe play in Mark O’Keeffe, who was upended by Gavin Purcell but O’Keeffe stepped up to give Purcell no chance from the spot kick.
With the visitors rocked and unable to get a foothold into the game as Bohemians controlled the tie, they did manage to pull a goal back with their first chance of the half on 37 minutes when Josh Aimiuhi beat the off-side trap before firing past a helpless Adam Carroll to bring his side into the game. In fact when Bohemians keeper Carroll gifted Gavin Purcell possession of the ball sixty seconds later on the left-side of the area, his acute angled effort was deflected off the post and out for what proved to be a fruitless corner kick. It has to be said that this wasn’t a classic game of football that maybe we would have expected from these two teams as Bohemians defended superbly but they were also guilty of missing a number of glorious opportunities to stretch their lead during the course of the second half. Niall McCabe should have notched a goal for himself on 72 minutes when he raced onto a superb through ball from Patrick Fitzgerald but despite racing one on one with keeper Aidan Purcell, his right-footed chip of the advancing keeper trickled wide of the right post. McCabe was just inches over the crossbar with a well struck free kick after David Hobbs had brought down Mark O’Keeffe on the edge of the penalty area on 79 minutes before Mark O’Keeffe missed another chance to put the tie beyond doubt four minutes later, however he dragged a one on one effort inches wide. With Villa offering little in terms of chances mainly down to the fact of Patrick Fitzgerald breaking down their attacks, they did have one opportunity to level two minutes from time when Adam Walsh’s right-wing free kick was flicked to Gavin Purcell but Adam Carroll produced an excellent save.
BOHEMIANS: Adam Carroll, Conor Gannon, Emmett Carroll, Mark MacManus, Patrick Fitzgerald, Conor McArdle, Sean McNicholas, Dessie Hutchinson, Niall McCabe, Mark O’Keeffe, Niall Daly, Kevin Butler, Andrew Phelan, Jack Maher, Ross Fitzpatrick, David Tyrrell and Sean Kervick
VILLA: Aidan Purcell, Christian Cullen, Lee Crowley, Conor Sheehan, Gavin O’Donovan, Adam Walsh, Danny Aherne, Tadhg Whelan, Josh Aimiuhi, Terry Krubu, Gavin Purcell, Ronan Cleere, Armend Gashi, David Hobbs and Conor McGettigan
