Aylesbury put the Booth down
By Fergus Balfe
BOOTH ROAD: 1
AYLESBURY: 7
AYLESBURY got their LSL Premier One season off to a flyer as they ruthlessly put ten-man Booth Road Celtic to the sword in Clondalkin Community Centre on Sunday.
The early sending-off of Celtic centre-back Gar Cleary at 0-0 proved crucial, as the visitors capitalised on their numerical advantage for a resounding win through a Nicholas Byrne hat-trick, along with braces from Anthony Halpin and substitute Rob McGrath either side of the interval.
An incredible driven through ball from Gar Cleary offered Booth Road forward Luke Darcy a chance, but Alan Dowdall saved with his legs, before Cleary went from almost-hero to zero as he was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle from behind on Halpin at the end of the first quarter.
This gave the energetic Aylesbury side fresh impetus, and they eventually broke the deadlock soon after, as Halpin’s clever dummy put Nicholas Byrne through on goal, and after John Delaney and Jay McKenna blocked his initial and rebound efforts, Halpin slammed in at the third time of asking.
The industrious Byrne did get off the mark moments later as his low shot from just outside the box squirmed under Delaney and into the net, before the Tallaght side notched their third goal in ten minutes when Celtic winger Nathan O’Callaghan’s sloppy pass was intercepted by Halpin, who simply had to turn and stroke home his second.
The Clondalkin side were thrown a lifeline shortly after the break, as Luke Darcy was fouled in the box and the forward picked himself up to convert the resulting penalty.
The visitors’ high pressing game was causing problems for Booth Road throughout, and it yielded further reward when Byrne charged down ‘keeper Delaney’s clearance to give himself an easy finish and make it 4-1.
Byrne was now chasing a hat-trick, and duly completed his trio of goals in style midway through the half, as he collected replacement Dano Conroy’s infield pass before surging past a defender and finishing emphatically.
Booth Road heads had well and truly dropped by this point but it got even worse for the homeside as sub striker Rob McGrath netted a quickfire double, the first coming straight from the kick off as Aylesbury forced an error and McGrath finished well into the corner.
Moments later an incisive pass from Aylesbury midfielder Owen Hamilton found McGrath to slide into the net and complete the scoring on a difficult day for the hosts.
BOOTH ROAD CELTIC: J. Delaney, M. Raymond, C. Darcy, G. Cleary, T. McCabe, J. Creamer, N. O’Callaghan, J. McKenna, D. Kernan, L. Darcy, S. McCarthy. SUBS: D. Kinsella, C. Delaney, A. Whelan, S. Whelan, S. Fitzpatrick.
AYLESBURY: A. Dowdall, R. Keogh, D. Kelly, K. Purdy, P. Lowry, K. Tate, R. Forde, O. Hamilton, A. Halpin, N. Byrne, B. Irwin. SUBS: A. Deering, D. Conroy, I. Thompson, R. McGrath, R. Gilmore, M. Wilson, D. O’Reilly.
