Westport Utd 2
Hoban 22, O’Gorman 70
Iorras Aontaithe 0
SEVEN played, seven won. Twenty-one points in the bag and the season at the halfway point. Everything points to another Super League title for Westport United, and it certainly will take a calamitous collapse allied to an equally inspired revival to deny them.
Yet, there are a few tricky obstacles to overcome yet. United must travel to Ballina next Saturday evening and there are also games further down the road against Castlebar Celtic and Claremorris. So, while it looks promising for United, as the Italian man that guided Ireland to Euro 2012 said: ‘The cat is not in the sack yet’.
Westport played well on Sunday – to a point. Their approach play was patient and careful, but the occasional rushed final ball let them down. A depleted Iorras came to the Sports Park to defend and it was hard to blame them. Two weeks ago they shipped six at the same venue, and on Sunday they left Mark Gilbert up front on his own and packed the midfield. It worked insofar as they didn’t concede six again, but they had no threat at all going forward.
Before United did score, they created a few good openings and JP O’Gorman and David Hoban were both denied by a fine double save from Ivan Barrett after ten minutes. Darren Browne had a free kick also well saved by the ’keeper. Such was the dominance of the home team that a goal was inevitable, and when it arrived it was worth waiting for. In fact, it was a thing of beauty.
The ball was moved from centre to right by the hugely impressive David Horkan and Darren Browne, back to the centre again before David Cameron was set free on the left. His superb cross was buried by David Hoban from ten yards. As an exercise in passing and movement it was as good as you’d see at this level. That should have opened the floodgates but it didn’t. A combination of good goalkeeping, good defending and the odd poor attacking decision kept the score down.
It meant the natives were a bit restless, but it also meant that there was an edge to the game. As the second half progressed, Iorras came out of their shell every now and then. Mark Gilbert fired a low ball across the penalty area that just evaded Jason Boylan, and Gary Cunningham also had to be quick off his line to deny Gilbert.
Then, with 20 minutes still to play, normal service was resumed as JP O’Gorman scored. It was his sixth goal in seven league games and 15th in total since he signed from Ballinrobe Town. This one was a crisp finish from a tight angle with that deadly left foot of his after being set up by David Hoban.
That settled it, though Iorras nearly pulled one back through Gilbert. But Cunningham stood tall and made a fine save.
Westport United
G Cunningham; S Higgins, K Joyce, M Geraghty, S Tagg; D Cameron, A Carroll, D Browne, D Horkan, JP O’Gorman, D Hoban.
Subs used: J Lawless for Geraghty; V O’Malley for O’Gorman; P Fitzgerald for Browne.
Iorras Aontaithe
I Barrett; S Murphy, D Reilly, N Geraghty, T Duffy, M Meenaghan, B Nallen, T McAndrew, S Nallen, J Boylan, M Gilbert.
Sub used: K O’Reilly for Murphy.
Referee: D McGrath
