A depleted Mullingar Celtic squad took the long trip to Mountrath today for the second leg of the Division 2 Cup Quarter Final against St. Aengus.
The Celtic men quickly raced into the lead when Keith Hope expertly cut the St. Aengus defence in two with a reverse through ball to Ian Keelan who cooly slotted the finish beyond the onrushing keeper.
St. Aengus grew into the game and with a big difference in height proved to be very dangerous from set pieces. As the game became increasingly tough & combative, Joe Doyle & Cian Farrell were brilliant in the Celtic midfield battling for every ball. Rory Matthews bravely made a fantastic 1 on 1 save from an excellent through ball by St Aengus near the end of the half.
In the second half, St Aengus dominated possesion and bombarded the Mullingar Celtic goal throughout. They brought themselves back into the game with a rebound after a superb save from Rory Matthews who tipped a free kick onto the crossbar.
Soon after the St Aengus left winger found space at the back post after a partly cleared free kick and finished to bring the scores level on aggregate.
Celtic went back into the lead when Mark Hickey found Ian Keelan with a great through ball. Keelos speed terrorized the defenders who clattered him inside the box and a penalty was duly awarded. Keith Hope buried the penalty to give us the lead again going into the final stages.
In the dying minutes of the game, the comstant pressure proved too much and St Aengus levelled again to force the game into extra time. The best chance of the first half of extra time fell to player-coach Richie Healy after a nice layoff from Johnny Mee but the St Aengus keeper was equal to it. Mark Hickey almost snatched the win for the Celtic men but the keeper proved to be in good form.
A resolute performance from all 11 Celtic men was enough to get us to a penalty shoout out. All five of our penalty takers Mark Hickey, Ian Keelan, Keith Hope, Shane Keena & Johnny Mee scored to give us the win and put us in the Semi Finals after St Aengus had missed their first penalty.
While Joe Doyle, Cian Farrell & Mark Hickey put in huge work, our Clarkes Bar, Mullingar Man of the Match goes to Shane Keena who was solid as a rock in his first game at centre back.
It was great to see club Chairman Christy Keena making his return after almost a year long absence through injury making a telling contribution to help us throuhh to the next round.
Best of luck to St. Aengus for the rest of the season and thanks to all of our supporters who made the trip to cheer us on
