Wednesday October 24 2012
KEVIN McArdle continued his rich scoring form with another brace of goals as Rock travelled to Kildare on Sunday for this Leinster Junior Cup tie and advanced to the next round by a narrow margin.
On a poor pitch, Rock’s superior ability was somewhat curtailed by the surface which hindered their usual freeflowing style of play. But with several changes from mid-week they were never troubled, with one exception in the first half.
Young Nathan Slowey, deputising in goal, pulled off a crucial save when a home attacker got through his defence and he won the resulting duel with distinction.
Otherwise the only danger that Rathangan posed was from corner kicks, from which significantly they scored both their goals, the second of which – 10 minutes from time – resulted in a tense finish, but they were unable to make an opening to force a draw.
McArdle gave Rock the lead in the first half when a nice piece of football culminated in the striker rounding the home goalkeeper to tap the ball into the net.
Within a couple of minutes of the restart he doubled Rock’s advantage. He picked up the ball in midfield and skated through a number of tackles to come face to face with the home goalkeeper before steering a shot through his legs.
Rathangan pulled a goal back, only for David Ward to restore his side’s twogoal lead when he cut in from the left and shot low past the goalkeeper.
Rathangan struck again from a corner kick to reduce the deficit to the minimum 10 minutes from time, but Rock held out. Nathan Slowey, Ross Quigley, David Hoey, Aaron Mulligan, Ciaran Clarke, Cormack McArdle, Mark McGeown, Paddy Quinn, Conor McDonnell, Kevin McArdle, David Ward (Jamie McCaul).
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