Tipperary Soccer: Important wins for Wilderness Rovers and Clonmel Celtic

CLONMEL CREDIT UNION LEAGUE DIVISION 1

Wilderness Rovers 6 – 2 Cullen Lattin
Looking good for promotion back to the Premier League, Wilderness Roves continued their quest for the First Division title with another excellent performance against a Cullen Lattin team in serious trouble at the opposite end of the table.
And perhaps the pressure of expectation weighed on the home side when they lost a player in the 10th minute, making their task all the harder. They regrouped quickly however and went one up thanks to a great goal from Sean Brown, following an inch perfect cross from Dean Clarke.
But Cullen got back into it after an unfortunate own goal, before the home side went back in front when Jason Barnes delivered a perfect corner right onto the head of Shane O’Meara to score seven minutes before the break. The visitors were stubborn though and equalised shortly after with a goal direct from a corner kick that deceived the home keeper. The game changed again just before half time when the visitors were also reduced to 10 men, giving the advantage back to the home side as the headed in for the half-time tea.
And they took that advantage with both hands, dominating the early part of the second period and going back in front for the third time when Chilli Hogan arrived at the back post to bundle the ball home. They extended the lead to two in the 65th minute when Brown was on target again to finish from inside the box. And finally made sure of the points when some substitutes combined 15 minutes from the end to set up Ben Brown to tack on the fifth. Ben then matched his brother Sean’s goal tally for the day when he got his second in the 80th minute to round off the scoring on a great day for ‘The Wildies.’

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Old Bridge 0 – 2 Clonmel Celtic
Clonmel Celtic finished out their regular season and secured the points they needed to keep their title hopes alive despite stubborn resistance from an Old Bridge side who played a lot better than their lowly league position suggests, in a fascinating Clonmel derby tie on Sunday morning at Green Lane.
The visitors started the better and had some good chances including a goal line clearance but after weathering the storm ‘The Bridge ‘created some chances of their own and were well worth their 0-0 standing at half-time.
The home side, who’ve had some excellent results of late themselves in recent weeks, then missed two gilt edged chances in the early part of the second period and, as is often the case they were made to rue those misses.
The visitors got on top in the final 20 minutes and applied pressure and should have scored on two occasions, before they finally opened the scoring 17 minutes from the end when Andrew Browne steered a free kick to the net from the edge of the box.
The game really opened up after this as the hosts tried to get back level, but Celtic were comfortable and killed off the contest when Niall Prendergast scored from close range in the 83rd minute.
This win leaves Clonmel Celtic at the top of the pile for now, but anxiously looking over their shoulder at local rivals Wilderness Rovers, to see which of the two sides will have the title and bragging rights before moving back up to Premier League football next season. But for now Celtic must wait and watch.