West take their chances to advance to the last eight

 Hibernians 0

Two second-half headers sealed a home win for West United at South Park on Sunday as they saw off a Hibernians side who were much improved on early season form and indeed were probably the better side in this Connacht Junior Cup last sixteen contest.

It was the visitors who had wind advantage in the opening half, but while they enjoyed plenty of possession, they rarely threatened Aaron Connolly’s goal and such was the strength of the elements, one felt an advantage was going to be required at the break.

Rather surprisingly, the second-half fell into a pattern not expected, as the visitors continued to play the better football and do most of the attacking, but they generally floundered when facing the West central defensive duo of Oisin Connolly and Denis Lydon. The pair were outstanding for the home side and, in reality, were overworked, as Hibernians tried to rescue something from the game.

For the home side, their only first-half opportunity came on 44 minutes when a cracking left-footed effort by Nathan Ward came back off a post. Otherwise, play was mostly concentrated on the Town goal, but set-pieces provided the only outlet for the visitors to get off the mark.

Indeed, even getting past the defensive unit was a difficulty as Aidan Coyle and Stephen Walsh struck numerous free-kicks into the wall. In open play, efforts off target by Shane Hulgraine and Lee Keogh were the closest Martin Devlin’s charges went to a scoring reward.

The resumption saw the hosts take a quick advantage of the elements when, 52 minutes in, Nathan Ward took advantage of a Gary Matthews cross that was originally cleared up in the air and with a backwards header, his effort looped beyond PJ Ward to make it 1-0.

The probing of Niall Rooney, Colin Kelly and Shane Hulgraine kept West on their toes at the back, but apart from a few goalmouth scrambles and set-piece deliveries, they never clearly got a sight of Connolly’s goal.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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