Rock Celtic U13's and Quay Celtic U13's draw a thriller in the Dundalk Schoolboys League

U13 Premier Division

Rock Celtic 2 Quay Celtic 2

Quay Celtic produced a magnificent performance on Saturday morning in the U13 Premier Division to take a point off league leaders Rock Celtic at Sandy Lane. 

The Point Road team were just three-minutes away from taking all three-points after they took a 1-2 lead early in the second-half thanks to a brilliant strike from Eoin Maguire, but they let the table toppers off the hook when Tom Cunniffe popped up to score the late equaliser. 

The hosts went in front after eight-minutes with their first attack of the game when Eoin Kenny drilled the ball past the stranded Conor Crawley after Kenny timed his run to perfection to get onto Evan Kearney’s long pass. Quay had started better with the impressive Luke O’Connell going inches away from opening the scoring after a fine passing move. 

Ben Cahill almost doubled Rock’s advantage with a curling effort which Crawley showed capable hands in keeping out. That was as good as it got for the home side in the first-half as Quay went on to dominate and Kevin Teather deservedly equalised in the 16th minute with a terrific left-footed shot after Shay Downey slipped a neat pass into his path. 

A rare error in the Quay defence minutes later offered Cian Walsh an opportunity to restore Rock’s lead, but Quay centre-back Andrew Begley raced back to clear the danger. 

The Quay attackers, O’Connell, Shay Downey Óisín McBride and the excellent Teather played with a lot of flair and confidence and they combined brilliantly in the 28th minute, but O’Connell’s final effort found the side netting.

The visitor’s morale remained high after the break and they took the lead after four-minutes when Maguire’s first time hit from all of 30-yards found the roof of the Rock net off the underside of the crossbar. 

Quay went on to create more chances to extend their lead and O’Connell almost bettered Maguire’s strike, but this time the ball crashed off the top of the 'bar. 

Rock seemed to take encouragement from the let off, sensing they could still get something from the game and a late rally earned them the equaliser when Francis Lynch slipped a clever pass into the penalty area to Cunniffe who stroked the ball home confidently beyond the reach of Crawley to secure a hard-earned point for the Seasiders.

Rock Celtic: Shane O’Connor, Evan Kearney, Daniel Cartwright, Eoin McDonnell, Ronan Callaghan, Francis Lynch, Thomas McNamara, Seán Cassidy, Adam Donoghue, Ben Cahill, Cian Walsh, Sam Twibill, Liam McNamara, Lee O’Donoghue, Cian Loy, Tom Cunniffe, Eoin Kenny

Quay Celtic: Conor Crawley, Conor McKenna, Bobby Nesbitt, Andrew Begley, Finn Conlon, Eoin Maguire, Óisín McBride, Luke O’Connell, Kevin Teather, Shay Downey, Jack McMahon, Patrick Barry

Referee: Colm McConville