Castlebar Celtic ease through to round 4 of FAI Junior Cup

Castlebar Celtic 5-0 Carbury

Diamond-Keane 40,
Kelly 51, 53,
Hughes 87
Neary 90+4

Castlebar Celtic thrashed Sligo-side Carbury FC, to advance to the national stage of the FAI Junior Cup on Sunday, at a showery Celtic Park. Celtic were almost unrecognisable from their usual starting line-up with several players absent for a variety of reasons. Those that came in, showed the depth and quality of the Mayo champions’ squad.

One of the newcomers, Adam Diamond Keane, put them in front on forty minutes, when he intercepted a sloppy pass from defender, Mark Hannon, after Celtic pressure, to coolly drive past Ben Gavin in the Carbury goal.

A Luke Kelly brace early in the second half killed the game off, and three minutes before the end of normal time, Eoin Hughes added a fourth for the Mayo champions. The goal of the game came deep in stoppage time when Davitt Neary saw his audacious flick beat Gavin to complete the rout.

In truth, Carbury were very poor. They offered nothing up front, didn’t put any quality moves together and were caught in possession frequently. Celtic were Celtic. They were skilful, hungry and prolific. Manager Stevie Gavin has built a big squad filled with quality. Many of these players didn’t start all season. You’d never think it based on this display. Mayo-midfielder, Oran Groarke, put in a man-of-the match performance, before coming off with a slight knock.

Celtic march on; Carbury can now concentrate on the Sligo/Leitrim league, knowing they were a poor second-best, on their day in Castlebar.

See Tuesday's edition of The Mayo News for full report on Celtic's victory.