Stradbally progress to the last eight of the CCFL Shield overcoming near neighbours Portlaoise

 Stradbally Town 3 

Portlaoise AFC 0 

STRADBALLY bounced back from their Counties Cup exit last weekend by progressing to the last eight of the CCFL Shield on Sunday afternoon overcoming near neighbours Portlaoise AFC.

With the bad weather continuing to affect fixtures all over the country the game was moved to St Pats Boys all-weather pitch in Graiguecullen in order to get it played.

On the pitch it was the men from the big town who started the brighter in the first 20 minutes dominating possession and playing the better football but the best chance in this period still fell to Stradbally when Justin Lalor who headed over from close range on 15 minutes after a fine cross from Podge Fitzpatrick.

Stradbally then grew into the game and when Eamon Delaney found Jody Dillon with a fine ball out of defence on 23 minutes, himself and Benny Lawlor played a fine one-two before Dillon ran onto the pass and rifled the opener in from 16 yards, a fine goal from start to finish.

It was two on 31 minutes when Lawlor again was in the thick of the action being taken down in the area after a fine run through. He picked himself up to fire the resulting penalty low to the Portlaoise keeper’s left.

Then right on the stroke of half time Stradbally were awarded a free kick and, while it seemed at least a good 25 yards out, Benny Lawlor stood up again and rifled his kick to the Portlaoise keeper’s left despite his best efforts for a tremendous strike to leave it 3-0 at the break.

The second half saw a torrential downpour for most of the proceedings leading to difficult conditions for both sets of players but to Portlaoise’s credit they never gave up. They tried to create openings but once again Eamon Delaney was in charge at the back for the Little Town and sniffed out anything Portlaoise tried to create.

At the other end Stradbally sub Conor Buggie was causing all sorts of problems down the left for Portlaoise with Justin Lalor also pushing forward creating problems.

With the rain eventually easing for the last 10 minutes Stradbally could have extended their lead through Cillian Maher with a fine strike that sailed just wide, while Benny Lalor, Justin Lalor and Tadgh Mullen all had efforts saved superbly by the Portlaoise keeper who was easily their best player on the day and the main reason it remained 3-0 at the end.

Stradbally will be happy to be in the last eight after a good tough test from this young Portlaoise side and now look forward to another massive game next Sunday when they travel to Rosslare Rangers in the LFA Leinster Shield quarter-final with a 12pm kick off.

For Stradbally Eamon Delaney, Justin Lalor and Benny Lawlor were all just pipped to Man of the Match by Jimmy O’Connor who played at three different positions during the game and excelled in all.

STRADBALLY TOWN: Jack Larkin, Colin Beale, Eamon Delaney, Jimmy O’Connor, Podge Fitzpatrick, John Clancy, James Devoy, Cillian Maher, Justin Lalor, Benny Lawlor, Jody Dillon.

Subs: Tom Shiel for Beale, Conor Buggie for Dillon, Noah Delaney for Devoy, Tadgh Mullen for Clancy, Gavin Langton for Delaney, Charlie O’Brien, Anto Skelly, Liam Clancy, John Hayden, Jack Langton.