Lucan Kill-ester to book place in next round of cup
LUCAN United manager John Doyle was delighted with his team performance as they upset the form book by securing a place in the second round of the FAI Cup.
A goal in each half was enough to secure the Lucan boys a 2-1 win over fancied side Killester Donnycarney in Celbridge Park on Sunday morning.
Lucan United players celebrate a goal
The travelling party would have fancied themselves to march on in the competition – considering they play a league higher than Lucan and finished second place to Crumlin United in the top flight last term.
But Lucan had other ideas and put in a solid performance that sees them in the second round for the first time in the club’s history.
“The lads were great. It is always a difficult time of year to get a result as we are only coming out of pre-season but to get the result against Killester is great,” John told The Echo.
“We had a couple of friendlies against UCD and Bluebell and this really stood to us. It gave us that bit of confidence that you need going into these type of games at this stage of the year,”.
United broke the deadlock on the half hour when the lively Marco Chindea found a way through to stun the travelling party.
The hosts continued to push forward and they did miss a few chances on the break which could have extended their lead.
However, Killester did threaten and could have found a goal but were kept out by a determined Lucan defence which was well marshalled by centre half Paddy Seery who recently signed from Tolka Rovers.
Lucan eventually doubled their advantage on 65 minutes when Aji Sule fired the ball to the back of the Killester net.
John Doyle’s side did have opportunities to extend their advantage but they could not extend this as they failed to capitialise. United did live on their nerves in the closing stages when John Brophy found a way through to beat Ian Molloy.
However Lucan keeper Molloy proved to be the hero when he pulled of a point blank save to stop Killester from equalising in the closing stages.
“To be fair Killester kept coming at us and kept pressing for an equaliser but we did well in the end to hang on. We are looking forward now to the next round,” added John.
The draw for the cup was held on Monday and Lucan were drawn against Crumlin United.
“We are delighted to get Crumlin United with a chance for an LSL team make the quarter-finals of the FAI Senior Cup.”
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