Mackeys work their magic again for Mill
The Mill Celtic team who defeated Athy Town in Carlow Soccer League KCLR Plate final in Killeshin
Mackeys coming up big in a final for Mill Celtic? Some stories are as old as time itself.
The famed football family from Balitore have backboned some of Mill Celtic’s greatest days and here it was again as they took on Athy Town in a Kildare derby in the Carlow Soccer League’s KCLR Shield final in Killeshin on Saturday.
Many of the club’s true greats have long since hung up their boots but it’s the next generation of Mackeys who are now leading the way as Mill lifted this title for the second time in four years.
Noel Mackey was one of the club’s greatest players alongside many of his family when the club were at the peak of their powers in the 90s and 00s but here it was his two sons, Eric and Brian, who were the bedrocks for this win.
Mill were already a goal up when Eric Mackey lit up the game with a wonderstrike. Tommy Nolan slipped the ball to him in the 13th minute but there didn’t seem to be much on as he was at least 25 yards from goal. The midfielder unleashed a rocket of a shot that dipped and swerved and left Jess Clancy grasping at fresh air as it flew into the top left corner of the net.
At the back, Brian Mackey was a rock at the heart of the defence alongside the equally impressive Paddy Dunne, who was later presented with the official man of the match award. They headed away everything that came near their penalty area and made sure that Athy had very little joy in close to goal. Athy did pull a goal back in the second half when 3-0 down but that took a good strike from distance to breach the Mill backline, and they weren’t given the chance to build on that.
Mill seized control of this final when they opened the scoring in the sixth minute. A clever pass by another of their star performers on the day, the industrious Dylan Warren, got the ball in behind the Athy defence and Dylan Wynne got in and finished first time to the bottom right hand corner of the net with a low, powerful drive.
They almost doubled their advantage two minutes later when Eric Mackey’s deep corner found the unmarked Dunne at the back post but he could only hit the side netting with his free header.
Mackey’s stunning strike did make it 2-0 soon after and Athy found themselves with a mountain to climb before they had really even got started.
Their first real effort on goal came in the 20th minute when Oisin Holland-Doyle’s 30-yard shot moved in the air and needed a fingertip save by Tomasz Suchan to push the ball around the post.
Paul Simms and Warren both hit shots straight at the opposing goalkeeper from the edge of the box over the next ten minutes or so.
Mill’s performance level had dropped slightly after their second goal, allowing Athy to come on to them, but it was still them who went closest to scoring again before half-time. Eric Mackey showed quick feet to jink his way past two Athy defenders on the right before cutting the ball back to Warren on the edge of the box but he didn’t catch his shot with the force that he would have liked and Clancy was well positioned to save comfortably.
Into the second half, Suchan had to be down quickly at his near post to make a smart save after something of a scramble following a left-wing corner from Holland-Doyle.
Any chance Athy had of getting back into the game evaporated in the 58th minute when Clancy scuffed his clearance only as far as Nolan. He quickly slipped the pass to Kian Lawler and the winger, who scored the only goal as Mill beat Parkville in the semi-final, made no mistake with a slick finish.
To Athy’s credit, they kept pushing and found a way back into the game ten minutes later when Kyle Norton drilled a low shot from outside the penalty area into the bottom left corner of the Mill net.
Two minutes later, the one mistake that Brian Mackey made during the game led to a free-kick at the top of the penalty area when he mistimed his tackle and fouled Adam O’Grady, resulting in a yellow card. It left a free in a very dangerous position but Suchan was able to hold on to Holland-Doyle’s shot at the second attempt.
Athy pushed on for the final 20 minutes and even went to three at the back for the closing stages, replacing centre-half Eoin Coffey with Eoghan Preston, but Mackey and Dunne were in no mood to let things slip in the Mill defence and they saw out a deserved win.
Tomasz Suchan; Keith O’Neill, Brian Mackey, Paddy Dunne, Paulius Lisauskas (Gary Lambe, 87); Killian Harney-Lawler (Daniel Maguire, 77), Eric Mackey (Alex Mackey, 87), Dylan Warren; Tommy Nolan (Evan Wynne, 87), Dylane Wynne (Mark Kavanagh, 61), Kian Lawler.
Jess Clancy; Alex Johnson, Reuban Fitzgerald, Eoin Coffey (Eoghan Preston, 88), Paul Simms; Jake Kemmy, Mark Byrne (Kyle Norton, 61), Oisin Holland-Doyle; Keith Wright (Jeffrey Ikuewan, 76), Roberto Donohue (Kelvin Aramwanbo, h/t), Adam O’Grady (Ben Dalton, 82).
Jonathan Walters, assisted by Artur Bienko and Joseph Byrne.
