Morrow hits late winner as Muirhevnamor U17's beat Rock Celtic in Dundalk Schoolboys League

U17 League

Rock Celtic 1 Muirhevnamor 2

A superb strike by Óisín Morrow three-minutes from time saw Muirhevnamor take all three-points from their U17 League top-of-the-table clash with Rock Celtic on Saturday afternoon.

The win extends Muirhevnamor’s lead at the table's summit to 13-points, as they look to claim the title ahead of the Blackrock side.

In a game switched to Muirhevnamor from Sandy Lane due to the weather, both sides were fielding weakened line-ups due to recent losses to the Monaghan/Cavan U17 League of Ireland squad; Paul O’Grady, Adam Fee and Conor Soraghan (Rock) & Joshua Ayoub and William Opoku (Muirhevnamor).

Despite being favourites, the hosts had to wait until the 29th minute to break the deadlock with a goal from Patrick Nicholson. They were in charge for the majority of the first-half, but struggled to find a way past Rock’s new ‘keeper Oran O’Hanlon. Samuel Olatunbasun and Morrow squandered chances inside 10-minutes before O’Hanlon produced a brilliant save to deny Nicholson before the end of the first-quarter.

However, top-scorer Nicholson made amends when driving past O'Hanlon to make it 1-0.

The Blackrock side had opportunities of their own before the interval with Issac McGahon drawing a good save from Mide Odubanjo before Aaron McQuillan's in-swinging corner-kick almost crept over the line with Isaac Olamide in the right place to clear.

After the break, the Blues remained the dominant force with Nicholson twice being denied by O'Hanlon, while a snapshot from the busy Seán Hill narrowly cleared the crossbar.

For their part, the Rock kept battling away and their reward came on 57-minutes when Kevin Campbell found the top-corner with a superb free-kick from 25-yards to make it 1-1 after a foul on Josh Connolly.

The goal put Rock in the ascendency as they pressed for a winner with Connolly drawing a block from Muirhevnamor's Seán Flanagan. However, when McQuillan was caught in possession in midfield, Rock were punished as the ball was quickly moved to Morrow who showed great technique to unleash an unstoppable effort with his left foot to the top right-hand corner for what turned out to be the winning goal.

Rock Celtic: Oran O’Hanlon, Luke Hoban, James Kieran, Kevin Campbell, Brian Soraghan, Josh Todd, Jay O’Hagan, Caolan McCabe, Isaac McGahon, Ope Stephens, Aaron McQuillan, Ben Collier, Oran McParland, Josh Connolly, Dennis Otabor

Muirhevnamor: Mide Odubanjo, Isaac Olamide, David Ekperuoh, Conal Doyle, Seán Flanagan, Oboon Onuorah, Samuel Olatunbasun, Kiitan Amur, Uche Ibeah , Patrick Nicholson, Seán Hill, Óisín Morrow

Referee: Colm McConville