Celtic in a league of their own

CASTLEBAR CELTIC clinched the Mayo Super League title with a solid win over Conn Rangers in the Sunday afternoon sunshine of Mount Falcon. The win on the day, and the capturing of the title last won by Celtic in 2019, were well deserved. They have consistently been the best team in Mayo this year, and the best team always wins the league.
Good work by the excellent Johnny Cocozza on the wing saw man of the match, Colm Nevin, put them in front after eight minutes on their sixth attack on Sunday.
Cocozza had served notice on Rangers as early as the first minute, when he shot narrowly wide. Jordan Loftus had a brace over the bar; Oran Groarke shot wide, and Brian Walsh headed over — all before Nevin’s strike.
Almost all of the first half was played in the Rangers’ half, as Ben Murphy, Cocozza, Nevin, Groarke, Loftus and Dylan Edwards completely over-ran the hosts’ midfield.
By the time Oran Groarke doubled the lead on 28 minutes, when he shot from distance, Celtic had threatened the Rangers’ goal ten more times.
A Dylan Edwards free-kick direct to the net on 40 minutes statistically confirmed Celtic’s superiority and sent them in three to the good at the break.
During the first half, Celtic goalkeeper, Stefan Hester, was called upon twice. He raced towards the edge of the box to deny the lively, Adam Gallagher after half an hour, and parried a shot from Rangers’ best player, Ciaran Brogan, which rebounded from the crossbar, just as referee John Mulroe signalled the break.
Rangers altered their formation — reverting to a flat back four — for the second half and they outplayed the champions-elect for the first 15 minutes. They stormed the Celtic rear-guard with passion, strength and urgency, but were unable to make a breakthrough.
Celtic skipper, Ioseph O’Reilly was very solid as usual, and Brian Walsh, beside him in the heart of the defence, was outstanding. As the half progressed, Celtic improved and Loftus and Edwards both had a number of shots wide or saved by Brian McMahon.
At the other end, Gallagher and Darragh Holmes were a constant threat, but the nearest Rangers came to scoring was a Holmes free kick which skimmed the crossbar.

“It was a tough slog,” Rangers’ coach, Mark Togher, told The Mayo News.
“Celtic’s tails are obviously up, they played some excellent football. We tried to stifle them in the first half. We sat back and tried to choke up the central areas, but their three goals came from those areas, so it shows the quality they have. I was very happy with how we played in the second half. It was a performance of great character and we didn’t concede again. “Overall, we are happy with the second half but disappointed with the result.”
Conn Rangers have done well in the Super League this season, even if this was their fourth consecutive defeat. They can play football and they are up for it.
They were missing a number of players on Sunday, which didn’t help, but even at full strength it’s unlikely they would have stopped a rampant Celtic who have won fifteen and drawn the other one of their sixteen league games on their way to the title, with two yet un-played.
Celtic have a huge squad and on Sunday they had players on the bench like Jason Hunt, Eoghan Hughes, Luke Kelly, Fionn Mahon and Johnny Walsh, all of whom would make the starting line-up of any other team in Mayo. Paul Walsh is injured, and Joe Slevin and Neil Douglas were unavailable.
So how does manager, Stevie Gavin, keep them all happy? “I can’t, in truth,” he admitted. “That’s just the way it is. We have a big squad but you need it with injuries, suspensions and lads working and all that.”
As for Sunday’s game, Stevie was happy with the performance.
“Rangers sat off us today and we pushed up on them. I thought we were really, really good in the first half. We kept the ball well and we created lots of chances. They came at us in the second half but we responded well, and the lads who came off the bench were very good.”

Conn Rangers
B McMahon, B Durkin, A Gallagher, T O’Horo, O McNamara, C Brogan, M McHale, D Holmes, A Gallagher, R Holmes, A Dempsey.
Sub useds: O Timlin, A Faughnan, T O’Sullivan, K Langan, M McMahon.

Castlebar Celtic
S Hester, M Cunningham, I O’Reilly, B Walsh, M Howley, J Cocozza, B Murphy, O Groarke, C Nevin, J Loftus, D Edwards.
Subs used: F Mahon, E Hughes, L Kelly, J Walsh, J Hunt, A Ludden, J Robinson.

Referee: J Mulroe