Carnbane League at the business end of season with cups at stake

Newry Celtic's Keith Johnston shoots at the Cleary Celtic posts at Artie Green Park when they met earlier in the league. It's all coming down to the wire now. Picture: Brendan Monaghan

CARNBANE LEAGUE – Premier Division

Cleary Celtic 3 Greenfield Park 0

Cleary Celtic continued to close in on league leaders Newry Celtic with a 3-0 victory over Greenfield Park last Thursday. Two Neil Barr penalties and a goal from Decky Monaghan was more than enough to see them through and now sit one point adrift with two games in hand over Newry.

Millburn Utd 0 Villa Rovers 2

Villa, no doubt still on a high from their Bessbrook Cup victory the previous week were back in league action on Saturday beating Millburn 2-0 with goals from an Aaron Devlin penalty and Kyle Brennan.

Newry Celtic 7 Greenfield Park 1

With just one league game remaining for Newry Celtic, against chasers and holders Cleary Celtic – winning that and hoping Cleary slip up being their only hope for the title – the Newry Hoops sent out a signal on Saturday with a 7-1 drubbing of Greenfield Park.

They were 2-0 up after five minutes with goals from Gavin Moan and Gary McAleavey. Caolan Gray hit a brace before the break and they led by an insurmountable 4-0 at half-time.

Newry’s dominance continued after the break, with two goals from Stephen Wylie and manager Stephen Daly even got in on the act with the last of the day. Stephen McDermott avoided a whitewash with a goal for Greenfield on 88 minutes but it was scant consolation.

AOH CUP

Church Street played Newry Celtic last night (Tuesday) in the AOH Cup Semi-finals after the former beat Mayobridge on penalties and the latter saw off Lisdrum in their respective quarter-finals last Saturday.

For Church Street there was no separating the sides with the Bridge opening the scoring through Keelan McEvoy and Liam McCartan responding. After another goal each the teams were locked at 2-2 at the finish and after extra time but Church Street edged it 5-4 in the shoot-out.

For Newry Celtic it was a much handier day against Lisdrum, with a 6-3 victory following goals for the usual suspects Neil Barr with a hat-trick, Decky Monaghan with a brace and Oisin Gray providing the other goal.