Johnstown 8
Torro Utd 1
The last 3 Thursday night games featuring Johnstown have produced 24 goals. This week that high scoring continued as Johnstown demolished visitors Torro Utd 8-1 in the O’Neill’s Sportswear Division 1 encounter at the MDL.
On 13 minutes Wayne Cahill, in a rich streak of form, dribbled through the Torro rearguard. Having looked as though he had taken it a bit too far, a lucky ricochet at the end saw him through 1-on-1 with the keeper with time to pick his spot and open the scoring.
Just 4 minutes later, Johnstown doubled their lead. Pierce Challenger tried to place his 20 yard shot past the Torro net minder who managed to get a strong hand to it but could only parry it into the path of the on rushing Adam Ivers. With the keeper still on the turf, Ivers calmly lifted the ball over him into the net.
It was not all one way traffic and mid way through the first half Torro had 2 guilt edged chances to find a foothold in the game. A brilliant diving header at the back post and close range shot could easily have produced a goal but for the excellent reactions and positioning of Dylan Byrne in the Johnstown net.
On the stroke of half time the hosts went 3-0 up. Kacper Zeberek nodded on a high ball to the ever eager Cahill. His low shot was pushed out by the Torro custodian but straight to Pierce Challenger who fired into the net.
The second half continued in much the same vein with early chances for Arnold Luco and Pierce Challenger but neither could find the net, until on the hour, Luco made it 4-0. A move that started with left back Jake McDermott, allowed Cahill to turn and sprint away from his marker. With time and space, Cahill picked out the run of Luco in the area. His powerful cross was deftly turned in across goal by last season’s top scorer.
Within 2 minutes they were 5 clear. Again, the man of the moment Cahill was the scorer, following a wonderful solo run on the left, cutting into the area before slamming an unstoppable shot past the keeper.
Next came one of the best goals I have seen at this level. Retaining possession for what must have been close to 2 minutes, Johnstown had Torro chasing shadows as the man on the ball always had at least 2 options to pass to. With this slick passing and movement Johnstown gradually made their way upfield. Following a cross from Luco, the eventual finishing touch was applied by Jamie Connolly making it 6-0 with over twenty minutes still to play.
At this point, Johnstown’s management team made a raft of changes, which resulted in their side dropping the intensity slightly as the substitutes took a few minutes to get into the game.
With 10 minutes to go, a quick break by Johnstown down the right culminated with substitute Ger Lynch crossing for Wayne Cahill who dispatched the ball first time into the Torro goal and completed his 2nd hat trick in 7 days, making it 7-0.
5 minutes later, Cahill was at it again. Sean Challenger took possession. Following a strong driving run through the Torro midfield, he played in Cahill to score his 8th goal in 3 games, and his 4th of the night.
In the dying moments, Torro struck a consolation goal denying Johnstown a much needed clean sheet that has proved elusive so far this season.
Johnstown FC Team: D. Byrne, J. McDermott, J. Colton, D. McQuillan (c), J. Connolly, W. Cahill, P. Challenger, S. Challenger, A. Ivers, K. Zeberek, A. Luco
Subs: G. Lynch for Luco, S. Conroy for Ivers, P. Dempsey for Zeberek.
