Tipperary Cup 1st Round: Wins for Cahir Park, Clonmel Celtic and Clonmel Town

Cahir Park 2 – 1 Moyglass United
Cahir Park may be having some success after returning to the Premier League this year, but they had to scrap all the way to finally get past Moyglass United in this first round Tipperary Cup tie played in Cahir on Sunday morning.
The home side dominated most of the early proceedings, but found it difficult to break down a stubborn Moyglass defence, fashioning nothing more than half-chances for most of the first half.
If anything, once they grew into the game, it was the visitors who looked the more dangerous, and the Park had goalkeeper Brian Sweeney to thank after he made two excellent saves, as the teams went to the break scoreless.
The second half, however, saw Cahir re-assert their control, and as the half wore on their superior fitness started to come to the fore. That said, it took until just ten minutes from the end for the breakthrough to come, when a long ball from Stephen Duggan found Ger Quinn in space, one-on-one with the Moyglass ‘keeper, and he held his nerve to slot the ball into the net.
With the away side now needing to commit more bodies forward gaps inevitably opened up, and Moyglass conceded a second goal three minutes later. This time Paraic Farrell fired a ball across the goal for John O’Brien to tap in.
This gave Cahir some cushion of comfort and although Stephen Houlihan pulled a goal back for Moyglass, it was the final kick of the game and made no impact on the final outcome.

Clonmel Celtic 4 – 2 Cahir Park B
Clonmel Celtic progressed to the second round of the Tipperary Cup with a workmanlike 4-2 win against Cahir Park’s seconds at a foggy Celtic Park on Sunday.
The hosts almost took the lead in the first minute when a Sean Brown header was scrambled off the line. But they didn’t have to wait much longer, with Brown heading home an inch-perfect centre from Paddy Ormond five minutes later.
They doubled that lead in the 19th minute when the impressive Brown took advantage of a defensive error to fire home from just outside the box. The Cahir goalie produced a fine save to deny Celtic a third goal before the break.
The second half followed the same pattern as the first, with Celtic in complete control, and Brown completed his hat-trick on the hour mark when he was played through and he made no mistake to make the game safe for his team.
Celtic made a number of changes and one of these subs, Peter O’Dowd, set up Seanie Hawkins on 70 minutes to score from close range.
Mikey O’Connor pulled one back for the visitors 15 minutes from time, and Keenan Darcy put further respectability on the scoreboard with a second goal two minutes from the end.

Clonmel Town 3 – 1 Old Bridge
Clonmel Town advanced to the next round of the Tipperary Cup thanks to a hard-earned victory over local rivals Old Bridge on a very cold afternoon last Sunday.
The Bridge came to the Complex looking for a repeat of last season’s single-goal victory but it wasn’t to be, as Town dug deep late on to secure the win and shrug off a poor run of form. The away side started well and created a few half-chances but eventually the hosts settled and took control when Ian Cleary steered them in front before half time.
Town were the better side in the first 20 minutes of the second period, but were rocked back with 20 minutes left when a long ball over their defence caused confusion and Alex Greene was able to capitalise, beating the ‘keeper to the ball and lobbing it to the net.
This setback, however, spurred Town into attack and they soon regained the lead when Ian Cleary got his second of the day, with a very tidy finish after some good build-up play.
Town got the insurance goal with time running out when Shane O’Meara scored his first goal of the season on his return from injury, after the Bridge left gaps in defence while trying to chase an equalising goal.