Tipperary Youths Football Round-Up - Clonmel Town dent Bansha title hopes

TSDL Youths Division 1

Clonmel Town 2 – 1 Bansha Celtic

Clonmel Town’s youths put a big dent in the title hope of league leaders Bansha Celtic when they took all three points in a keenly-contested game at Ferryhouse last Saturday.

Town had the better of the early exchanges, with a Monsur Bambiata header going inches wide as early as the fourth minute. Cian McGrath was then put through by an excellent Harry Ryan Tobin pass, only for Josh O’Dwyer to make an excellent tackle to deny the striker getting a shot away.

Town looked to have broken the deadlock in the 23rd minute, when Joey Browne unleashed an unstoppable shot from all of 25 yards that flew past the Bansha goalie, only to see the ball cannon off the underside of the bar before being scrambled to safety.

However, three minutes later Town finally got their deserved goal when Ronan Walsh finished off a great move to shoot powerfully past Tyler Barry in the Bansha goal.

Despite being under the cosh up to that point, the Bansha almost made an instant reply when a Daniel O’Dwyer header just went the wrong side of the post.

The rest of the half turned out to be topsy turvy, with both sides having chances, but there were no more additions to the scoreline.

Clonmel Town started the second half on the offensive once again, and Alex Lawless hit the post within two minutes of the restart. His disappointment at this miss evaporated minutes later, when he added his side’s second goal after his deflected shot found the corner of the net.

Adam Hennessy should have pulled one back for the away side when a super ball from Bill Quirke split the Town defence but with only John O’Connell to beat, Hennessy put his effort wide.

Both sides were guilty of missing chances and when Danny O’Dwyer did finally score for Bansha, it was in the final minute and it came too late to have any real effect on the final outcome.

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Two Mile Borris 2 – 1 Cullen Lattin

Two Mile Borris took advantage of the slip-up by Bansha Celtic to move back to the top of the Division One table with a hard-fought win over Cullen in Newhill Park on Saturday afternoon.

Still smarting after a close defeat the previous week, they knew a win was vital to remain in the race for what is becoming a very exciting season in youths football in the TSDL.

For the opening 25 minutes Cullen Lattin had the upper hand and had a couple of good chances to score, but the home side weathered the early storm and eventually took a foothold in the game, dominating the final 15 minutes without finding the net.

Two Mile Borris started the second period on the front foot and pinned Cullen Lattin back time and again in the early portion of the half.

The breakthrough eventually came from an unlikely source when a corner dropped to the feet of centre back John Lacey, who stroked the ball into the bottom corner of the net to give his side the advantage.

They kept the pressure on and with 25 minutes left scored a second, when Lacey again came up for a corner, and headed to the net.

Things were looking good at this stage, until Cullen Lattin’s Caoimhin Doody scored a screamer of a volley with ten minutes left to set up a nervy ending. But Borris regrouped and held out to put themselves back on top of the division, as the teams start the run in at season’s end.

TSDL Youths Round up
There were two more games in the Youths League on Saturday, both having implications at the top end of the First and Second Divisions.

Clonmel Celtic travelled to Thurles on Saturday to take on a Peake Villa team that had to win the game to have any chance of getting involved in the title race, while the Clonmel side needed the points themselves to stay ahead of them. And it was Celtic’s day, as they came away from the Tower Grounds with all three points after a comprehensive 4-0 victory.

In the Second Division joint league leaders Cashel Town travelled to Cahir Park hoping to move clear at the top of the table, and they did so after a 3-0 win that puts them within touching distance of winning a first league title at the Youths grade in a number of years.