Tipperary Cup 1st Round: Wins for St Nicholas and Slievenamon Celtic/Kilsheelan United

St Nicholas 4 – 2 Peake Villa

The home side started brightly and thought they had opened the scoring after just five minutes, but their effort was ruled out for an offside infringement.

They continued to have the upper hand, though, but were rocked on 18 minutes when Peake Villa’s Liam McCormack scored against the run of play to put them one up.

However, this setback didn’t deter St Nicholas from continuing to attack, and they were level in the 32nd minute when Aaron Ryan Shiner converted a great cross from Declan Riordan, heading past the stranded goalie.

The game was very entertaining at this stage, with both sides having a go at every opportunity. But there were to be no more goals in the first half, and the teams went to the break level at 1-1.

Villa started better in the second period and only took three minutes to re-establish their lead when Renan De Carvalho headed home, with the St Nicholas defence caught napping.

On 57 minutes the Saints were back level for the second time, with Jason Sutton getting the goal, another headed effort after Aaron Ryan Shiner provided the assist.

From here on in, it was one-way traffic, with the home side taking over, and 20 minutes from time they finally got their noses in front when Ryan Shiner was taken down in the area , and Sutton added his second of the day from the penalty spot.
They made sure of the win with a fourth goal in the final minutes when Ryan Shiner topped a brilliant performance by setting up Jack Downey, who finished to the net from ten yards.

Slievenamon Celtic 6 – 1 Tipperary Town

Played on a desperately cold morning, this was one of the only morning games to survive the big freeze at the weekend, and Kilsheelan United’s juniors took full advantage to book their place in the second round of the Tipperary Cup after a big win over fellow Third Division rivals Tipperary Town.

The home side started strongly and deservedly went a goal ahead after nine minutes when Ben Smith’s pull-back found Mark Heffernan, who tapped home.

Midway through the half, they came close twice to doubling our lead. Firstly, John O’Dwyer saw his effort rebound off the crossbar, before O’Dwyer again had a low-drilled effort saved well by the ‘keeper. From the resulting corner, however, Cian Roche got on the end of Cathal de Faoite’s delivery to fire home and extend the lead.

But just moments later Tipperary Town halved the deficit, with their striker getting in behind the Celtic defence and finding the bottom corner of the net.

The game went to the break at 2-1 and ten minutes into the second period Celtic regained their two-goal lead once more when Cian Roche got his second of the game, heading home from another Cathal de Faoite corner kick.

It was 4-1 in the 68th minute when a mix-up in the Tipperary Town defence ended up in an own goal, before substitute Aaron Costin got on the scoresheet 14 minutes from time to make it 5-1.

Slievenamon Celtic finished off the scoring seven minutes from the end, when Nathan Dolan dispatched a penalty to leave the scoreline 6-1 at the referee’s final whistle.