St Michael's send for the cavalry to avoid major shock against Dualla in Tipperary Cup
Tipperary Cup (2nd Round)
St Michael's 1 Dualla FC 0 (after extra-time)
Second Division Dualla almost pulled off the shock of the round when they took Premier League holders St Michael’s all the way to extra time before going down to a single goal defeat in the second round of this year’s Tipperary Cup.
The home side were giving many of their squad players a chance to stake their claim in the side, but they were made work all the way by a Dualla team that is riding high in their own Division in recent weeks.
As was expected the home side dominated the possession in the first half but they were unable to fashion anything of quality and only had a couple of half chances by Rhys Byron and Mikey Nash to show for their efforts.
The away side for their part had a number of half chances of their own, but in the end the two sides went to the break scoreless.
If the watching supporters expected some more energy in the second period, they were left disappointed as again it was a rather disjointed game with the home side being forced into bringing in some of the big guns to try to pry open a watertight Dualla defence.
The standard of ball into the front line improved when the likes of Jimmy Carr, Russell Quirke and Ashley Kelliher made their appearance but the final ball that might have made the difference proved elusive and the game finished scoreless, to the surprise of almost all the watching crowd.
Eventually however, when it got to extra time, experience and fitness began to take its toll on the away side and after Ed O[Dwyer had gone close twice, it was one of the likeliest sources, Jimmy Carr who turned in a cross five minutes from time to ensure his sides victory.