Iveagh Celtic 0, Spartak 1.<\/p>\n
A spectacular long range volley from Ger Byrne after just 14 minutes settled this match. Fintan Grace\u2019s header found Stuart Love , whose fine through ball was hit first time, right footed (!) by Ger to the top corner from outside the box.
\nSpartak, in truth, were well below par, and were reliant on some last ditch defending to stay in the cup. Peter O\u2019Toole was equal to everything thrown at him, with one really great second half save. Steve Grier headed and tackled troughout to repel attacks and the rest of the back four worked hard , after a shaky start, with Fintan Grace pulling off a great goal line clearance on the stroke of half time, after a series of blocks and just when an Iveagh goal seemed inevitable.
\nIveagh announced their intentions with a terrific shot just over in the early minutes, and Spartak replied when good work by Thom O\u2019Driscoll, Anto Doyle and Glen Burke led to Steve Grier\u2019s shot being well parried.
\nAfter Ger\u2019s goal, Spartak had a poor half hour spell. The front men could not hold the ball up, with Thom off the pace and Ger\u2019s touch erratic. In fairness the front men got less support than ex President Mubarak in Cairo. At the back, errors and sloppiness led to Iveagh lobbing wide and striking the inside of the post. A couple of free kicks in dangerous areas were conceded and some desperate defending was needed.
\nWhile the Sky Blues improved slightly in the second half, it was still mostly Iveagh who owned the ball.
\nNeither Neil McGowan nor Keith Kelly could impose themselves in the centre, and while Stu worked really hard up and down the flank, his distribution wasn\u2019t of the best at times. Anto Doyle struggled to get to the pace of the game, and he and Glen were a weak link down the right flank in the first half. So mostly it was a case of trying to stem the tide of opposition possession.
\nTwo chances were created by Spartak in the second half, when Neil McGowan\u2019s shot was saved and then the chance to clinch the game was missed on 80 minutes when from Seamus McCahill\u2019s flick on neither Thom O\u2019Driscoll or Stuart Love could apply the finish in a scramble close to the line.
\nA much relieved Spartak heard the final whistle which announced entry to the semi finals. Plenty of fitness work required.
\nForm Report
\nPeter O\u2019Toole 8 Glen Burke 5 Fintan Grace 7 Steve Grier 8 Dave Browne 7 Keith Kelly 6 Neil McGowan 6 Anto Doyle 5 Stuart Love 7 Thom O\u2019Driscoll 5 Ger Byrne 7.
\nSubs Seamus McCahill 6 Niall Tilley Paul Kinsella Martin Costello Will O Connell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iveagh Celtic 0, Spartak 1. A spectacular long range volley from Ger Byrne after just 14 minutes settled this match. Fintan Grace\u2019s header found Stuart Love , whose fine through ball was hit first time, right footed (!) by Ger to the top corner from outside the box. Spartak, in truth, were well below par, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-sunday-lsl-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1963,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spartakdynamofc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}