Tipperary soccer sides clash in Clonmel Munster Youths Cup derby

Clonmel Town 2 Clonmel Celtic 1

Two Darragh Cronin goals either side of half-time was enough for Clonmel Town to squeeze past their neighbours Clonmel Celtic in a very entertaining Munster Youths Cup tie in the Dr Pat O’Callaghan Complex last Saturday.

Town had the better of the first half with David Cagney, Charlie Barlow both coming close in the opening minutes of the game.

In the 34th minute Keenan Kerton was played through against Oisin O’Donoghue but he hit the post and the ball was scrambled away to safety. And just as it looked like the game would go to the break scoreless the hosts took a quick corner kick, which was headed to the net superbly by Darragh Cronin.

Two minutes into the second half, Martin Ryan won a free kick at the edge of the Celtic box, and Cronin’s ferocious strike gave the home side a two goal lead that proved sufficient in the end.

To Celtic’s credit they upped their game and with twenty minutes left Darragh Mc Ivor pounced on a parry from home Shane O’Connor to score a deserved goal for the visitors.

In the 80th minute Jake Forristal’s wonderful header was superbly saved by O’Connor in the Town goal as Celtic threw the kitchen sink at their rivals to try to get back in the game, but ultimately the home side held and were relieved to hear the full-time whistle for a deserved win.