Bangor tops in seven-goal thriller

SPECTATORS at the Transport Club in Crumlin were treated to a thriller on Sunday as the home side Bangor Celtic took the honours in a seven goal nail biter reports Ken Doyle.

Wayside Celtic were the opposition in the Crumlin outfit’s first game of the new Leinster Senior League Senior Division campaign.

And what a game it was, with Bangor’s Ognjen Lovic giving the hosts the lead after just two minutes.

Darragh O’Connor equalised for the visitors before Ryan Carberry restored Bangor’s lead in the 44th minute.

A Lewis O’Neill goal for Wayside on the stroke of half time ensured the sides went into the break level. In the second half, Wayside went 3-2 ahead through Cian Fay and as the 90th minute approached it looked like being the decisive goal.

The game then swung back into the balance as Troy Stedman struck for Bangor on 90 minutes.

Action from the match

Deep into injury time, Shane O’Keeffe scored the winner for Bangor prompting wild celebrations among the players and the Bangor Celtic faithful.

Speaking after the game, and once he’d got his breath back, Bangor manager John Scott told The Echo, “it’s great to start the season with a win, we can’t ask for any more.

“The players gave everything and we’re on the board for the season.

“No complaints here.”

Regarding the rest of Bangor’s season, John told us, “I believe we’ve had a good pre-season and had minimal disruption to the squad.

“Adam Condron and Ronan Hanaphy moved on and we wish them all the best, but we were delighted to be able to bring in Shane O’Keeffe who’s commuting from Longford to play for us.”

Asked if Celtic could improve on last season’s sixth place, John said, “well sometimes it’s difficult to compete with clubs with more resources than ourselves, but I firmly believe that with a full squad, we can put it up to any of them.”

“I’m very optimistic about the season and we have three points on the board so with a bit of luck, we’ll be in there challenging.”