Five-star United maul Manulla

Five-star United maul Manulla


Manulla                     0
Westport Utd           5
O’Malley 30, O’Gorman 31, 66, Browne 50, 70

Patrick Ward
Manualla

DARREN Browne and JP O’Gorman both bagged a brace of goals as Westport walloped Manulla on Sunday afternoon to extend their lead at the summit of the Mayo Super League.
It was two quick-fire goals that earned Westport a comfortable lead that they would never relinquish.
A superb free-flowing move resulted in the first goal as David Cameron found space before slotting an inch-perfect pass to O’Gorman, who powered the ball across the goal for Vinnie O’Malley to tap in.
Manulla had hardly any time to have an inquest into the goal before they were picking the ball out of the net again.
Cameron was the instigator again as he chipped in a dangerous cross from the right hand side that bounced off Barry Cuffe and into the path of O’Gorman who bundled the ball home.
Manulla’s best chance of the first half came with 35 minutes played when Enda McGahan hit a superb free-kick towards the top corner that was expertly tipped away by Westport stopper Gary Cunningham.
O’Gorman was tearing through the home side’s defence at will and, when he was played through by Cameron, it took a superb save from Matthew Flanagan to deny him a second goal, and the striker smashed the rebound wide.
The ex Ballinrobe Town attacker was gifted another golden opportunity to add to his side’s lead when he latched on to a poor back pass and ran through on goal, but Flanagan stood tall and got down superbly to palm his effort away.
The second half continued in the same vein as the first with O’Gorman and Flanagan doing battle on numerous occasions.
Despite all his best efforts, Flanagan was powerless to prevent the visitors snatching a third goal as Darren Browne coolly slid a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
JP O’Gorman eventually got his second of the game when he got on the end of Cunningham’s huge kick-out and lobbed the onrushing Manulla goalkeeper.
Browne finished off the scoring for the away side as he evaded a sliding challenge from Damian Ansboro before powering the ball into the bottom corner again.
The tireless O’Gorman was desperately trying to round off his hat-trick but again he was denied by Flanagan who closed down the striker’s shot.
When O’Gorman eventually did beat the homeside’s keeper, he was denied by the post.
The closest Manulla were able to come to scoring was when Roger Clarke hit a powerful drive from the edge of the area but Cunningham dealt with it comfortably.

Manulla
M Flanagan; C McGlade, J Hennelly, B McLoughlin, P Canavan; B Cuffe, J Griffin, R Clarke, D Campbell; E McGahan, L Timmons. Sub used: M Mongan for Timmons.

Westport
G Cunningham; C Browne, K Joyce, S Tagg, A O Malley; D Scahill, D Cameron, D Browne, J.P O Gorman; V O Malley, G McLoughlin. Subs used: J Lawless for Joyce, A Carroll for Cameron.
Referee: M McCay