Martin O'Neill Watches as Tramore Defeat Villa

Villa – 1
Tramore – 6

The young players of the Villa and Tramore were thrilled to play in front of Republic of Ireland manager Martin O’Neill in Connors Park on Tuesday night last.

Capped 64 times by Northern Ireland the two time European Cup winner was invited to the game by the CEO of the FAI John Delaney. John’s son Tom has been playing for the Villa club since he was a toddler and just like all of the other young boys who lined out last week he was thrilled to play in front of Martin O’Neill.

The Irish manager conducted the pre-match coin toss prior to kick-off and the match referee Jim Kealy was only too happy to hand that task over to the affable Ireland gaffer.

Martin had to deliver a half time pep talk to the home side because they were four goals behind at that stage. Overall this was a delightful occasion in Connors Park on Tuesday last.

The seaside outfit struck for the lead goal inside the opening two minutes of the tie when Alex Kavanagh picked up possession of the ball on the left side of the area after a slip in the Villa defence and his clinical finish over the Villa was Robbie Keane like!

Tramore were celebrating their second goal two minutes later when Ellie Murphy sprayed the ball wide out to the right for Tony Kelly and he beat Villa keeper Mark Hogan with a neat right-footed finish before Ben McInerney could have pulled a goal back at the other end minutes later but shout into the side netting. A brilliant third Tramore goal settled the tie on nine minutes and it was a goal that even had Martin O’Neill applauding from the stand when Tony Kelly picked up the ball out on the right side Matt Keane reports of the area before finding the far corner of the net with a stunning effort.

Joe Barry added a fourth goal for the seaside outfi t that really put the game beyond any doubt four minutes before the half time whistle when he found the net with a stunning effort from the edge of the area while Raymond Balagun netted Tramore’s fifth early in the second half.

Villa did keep on battling and they pulled a goal back on 43 minutes when Alex McGrath’s delivery from the right came back off the underside of the crossbar but Scott Murphy was on hand to bundle the loose ball over the line from close range.

Tramore completed the scoring two minutes later when Tony Kelly notched his hat-trick when he fired home from close range.

VILLA: Mark Hogan, Mark Breen, Peter Hogan, Craig Morrissey, Scott Murphy, Aaron Wynberry, Tom Delaney, Ronan Quinn, Shane Doheny, Charlie Baylon, Ben McInerney, Alex McGrath, Jack Hodgers, Dylan O’Brien, Sam Kingston, Reese Dunphy, Ditto Levers, Thomas O’Hanlon, Jay Hogan, Jack Kearns

TRAMORE: Jake Ramsey, Luke Honway, Sean Evans, Darren Connor, Jack Brennan, Shane Doyle, Joe Barry, Tony Kelly, Alex Kavanagh, Tadhg Dablkulon, Ellie Murphy, Fintan Conway, Steven Pollard, Raymond Balagun, Joe Hawkes, Paddy Reynolds, Steven Mouroy

REFEREE: Jim Kealy.