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You could see why Cherry Orchard are LSL Champions. May not be pretty on the eye and blunt up front, but were very organised and physically strong.
Cherry Orchard would more than hold their own in the First Division. Was that the same Graham Doyle of the Mons playing?
Paul O'Brien is an impressive manager.
I thought Crumlin were a better footballing side.
Cherry O were all long ball.....then again thats ideal for our division I suppose.
Graham Doyle came from Dublin Bus F.C. he also played for Cherry Orchard schoolboys with Philip Hughes & Ray Scully.
Hughes' wonder goal settles it
By David Thorpe
Kildare County 1
(Hughes 24) Cherry Orchard 0
KILDARE County advanced to the quarterfinals of the FAI Cup with a comfortable defeat of non-league Cherry Orchard at Station Road on Saturday night.
The Thoroughbreds made a nervous start to the game, and it was the nonleaguers who began the brightest, although it was a scrappy opening period and neither side created a clear-cut chance in the opening minutes.
Kildare made one enforced change from last week’s victory over Dublin City, with Tadgh Murphy replacing cup-tied keeper Danny O’Leary between the posts.
Another player who may be familiar to local soccer fans is Cherry Orchard midfielder Jim O’Brien, who enjoyed a brief but successful spell with Newbridge Town in the late 1990’s.
Murphy was called into action after just nine minutes, doing well to parry a useful snapshot from striker Seán O’Connor, after some good work by the Orchard midfield.
County gradually over-came their early nerves and began to have a greater share of the possession, and their endeavours were rewarded when their two best players on the night, Damien Brennan and Phillip Hughes combined to create one of the finest goals you are likely to see at any stage of this season’s FAI Cup.
Brennan, playing his 50th game for Kildare, gathered the ball on the left wing and played a delightful and precise cross-field ball into the path of Hughes, who turned and planted a deft lob into the corner of the net from all of 30 yards out.
Normally, goals like this are the fault of the goal-keeper, but Hughes’ effort was special and left Clohessy in the Orchard goal with no chance.
Ten minutes later Hughes was unlucky not to double his tally when his intelligent run created the space for him to shoot from an awkward angle. He was unlucky to see this effort rattle the crossbar and be cleared by the Orchard defence.
At this point many non-league teams would fold, conceding defeat and hoping merely to keep the score down, but Orchard are made of sterner stuff, and they continued to press, with their winger Colin Nataro at the centre of everything they did in attack.
It was Nataro’s good work that created the non-leaguers’ best chance when Aidan Price’s header clipped the County crossbar. The follow-up header from Colm Daly drifted harmlessly wide with the half time whistle blowing shortly afterwards.
After the drama of the first half, with some moments of top quality football for the spectators to saviour, the Station Road faithful must have been looking forward to a second half of similar vintage, but they will have been disappointed by the desperately poor second period.
There were few clearcut chances, and the Thoroughbreds seemed content to play a conservative game which involved choking the midfield and hoping that their superior fitness level would tell in the end.
Surprisingly though, the non-leaguers did not tire visibly as the game wore on. Indeed, the evergreen Nataro, who played in a cup final for Longford Town, and midfielder Jim Smith seemed to get better as the game progressed, but their teammates lacked the killer instinct to take advantage of their good work.
County continued to press, with more good work from full-back Brennan and Ray Scully, but like their opponents, the final ball was always lacking and they posed little threat to their opponents goal.
The closest either side came to a goal in the second half was a Marc Kenny free-kick which floated narrowly over after 69 minutes.
Kildare County manager Eric Hannigan, who has a 100% record from his three games in charge, told The Kildare Nationalist that he was happy with the win.
“Orchard are a good side and they made it difficult for us throughout. The goal was a bit special, and apart from that there was very little in it at the end.”
The Thoroughbreds have now reached the heady heights of the quarterfinals, and if they can bring some of their form from the league to the knockout competition, there won’t be many teams who will relish facing them in the next round.
Kildare County: Murphy Brennan. Cronin, Whelehan, Kenny R, Kenny M, Scully, Zeller, Hughes, McNevin (Kelly 54), O’Connor (76), Hughes.
Cherry Orchard: Clohessy, Tougher, O’Brien,Smith, Malone, Price, Daly, Mearns, Doyle, O’Connor, Nataro.