Johnstown completed an unbeaten January with a fine 6-2 victory over Friday night’s visitors to the MDL, Woodview Celtic.
The Dundalk side were unlucky not be in front after a dominant opening period, being thwarted a couple of times by Dylan Byrne in the Johnstown nets & a superb last ditch tackle by Jamie Connolly with Woodview through on goal.
Johnstown began to grow into the game & it was not too long until they made Woodview regret their missed opportunities.
A quick fire double from Kacper Żeberek put his side in control just after the half hour.
His first came from a quick corner on Johnstown’s right as Żeberek met Sean Challenger’s far post cross with a superb diving header.
3 minutes later, it was 2-0. The ever influential Challenger released Dylan Bollard with an excellent ball down the right. The Johnstown right back powered in the area and played in Żeberek who slotted home across the keeper.
With a few minutes to play in the first half, Arnold Luco was through on goal. He went down under the challenge of a defender in the box but the referee waved the away loud appeals from the home side.
The hosts came out after the interval, firing on all cylinders once again and within 2 minutes were 3-0 up. Wayne Cahill’s perfectly weighted through ball found Vinny Murphy’s run. As he entered the area, Murphy pulled his left foot shot across the keeper into the bottom corner.
As Johnstown’s dominance grew in this period of the game, they could have been further ahead. Luco was first denied by a combination of keeper & post before Murphy was released in an almost carbon copy move that lead to his goal, but as the keeper stood tall, the Johnstown man could only chip into the waiting keeper’s hands.
Then came the moment that breathed life back into Woodview Celtic’s challenge in the game. With an hour elapsed, their forward tumbled in the box under a challenge from Darren McQuillan. The referee showed no hesitation this time in awarding the penalty. Despite his best efforts, Byrne could do little to keep out the spot kick as his side’s advantage was reduced to 3 goals to 1.
This set back did not deter the home side, and soon after, they restored their 2 goal cushion. Challenger’s vision & execution of pass freed Wayne Cahill who grateful accepted the chance to chip in his 10th league goal of the season.
With 15 minutes left, Woodview came back again. They stole possession high up the field on their right and following a quick interchange of passes laid the ball back for a shot driven home low to Byrne’s right.
The game stood at 4-2, and as the old cliché goes, the next goal would be crucial and it came with 5 minutes left. Kacper Żeberek held off a number of defenders before laying the ball off across the face of goal to the waiting Adam Ivers. The second half substitute tapped into an empty net making it 5-2, securing the points for his side.
In the final minute, Ivers turned provider as he set up Arnold Luco for another tap in finishing off the scoring.
This 6-2 win ensured Johnstown finished January unbeaten with 3 wins & a draw from their 4 games and will fill them with confidence ahead of a return to cup action next week.
Johnstown FC Team: D. Byrne, D. Bollard, J. Colton, D. McQuillan (c), J. Connolly, D. Grumley, W. Cahill, S. Challenger, V. Murphy, K. Zeberek, A. Luco
Subs: J. McDermott for Colton, A. Ivers for Murphy, P. Challenger for S. Challenger, P. Dempsey for Cahill.
