⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪⚫⚪ LFA Junior Cup Result: SCORE: Forth Celtic FC 2-2 Kingswood Castle FC AET GOALS: Justin Doyle ⚽ Alex Rafferty ⚽ Penalties: Forth Celtic FC 7-6 Kingswood Castle FC REPORT: A fantastic day out for the Club and all involved as we travelled to Wexford to take on a big strong unit in Forth Celtic. We started the better side settling well into things & controlled the possession without creating any clear cut chances, then things took a turn for the worse as we had a man sent off eighteen minutes in for a challenge that we've seen given and sometimes not given this season. You'd expect it to be backs against the wall after that but it was anything but that as we took the lead from a crisp left foot volley from Justin Doyle as he ran onto a clearance after a super ball in from the right wing. Half time came with not much threat from the home side, second half as expected they came at us as we sat in soaking up the pressure looking to counter them when we could. Justin Doyle, Ross Molloy & Adam Burns carried the ball up the pitch whenever they had a chance to break. The home side got back into this cup tie on the hour mark with a well worked move down our left side a cut back saw their on coming striker slot home. It was as you where this time the home side with most of the ball as our lads continued to run their legs off, closing down & putting their bodies on the line against the 11 men, Jack Murphy, Alex Rafferty & Conor Leigh where Trojans at the back & when needed Goalkeeper Brian O'Reilly was a calm influence. A few changes put some fresh legs into our side, Adam Mooney & Nathan Dunne came into the tie as some of our Players simply ran until they couldn't give anymore, their back line had a busy afternoon. Mooney continued on the graft up front holding up the ball for support and we should have retaken the lead with Nathan Dunne unable to get as much contact as he would have liked right in front of the goal with his header. His effort going over the crossbar. Things were on a knife edge as this was turning into a fantastic battle. Half chances came & went Ross Molloy seeing his effort tipped over the crossbar as we wondered just how we hadn't gone ahead, this came back to haunt us as a set piece from a corner fifteen minutes from time put them ahead for the first time. Other teams could have folded at this point but not us as we proved we will fight until the very end. With only a few minutes in normal time remaining Ste Sweeney won a corner. This in-swinging corner from Haydon Boland saw our Skipper Alex Rafferty rise up & power home a front post header to which had our side line explode into celebrations as this game was tied again. Extra time came & went quickly so the joys of penalties were needed to split the teams & with both teams scoring 4 each Brian O'Reilly saved their 5th but then we missed ours which would have given us the win. The spot kicks continued, they scored & unfortunately we missed with the home side coming out 7-6 winners in what was a heart breaking defeat to take. A tough terrible pill to try swallow. 95 minutes overall including extra time with ten men against one of the favorites for the competition is a what could have been situation with 11 Vs 11. But this can't go unsaid every single player gave their all today and we are extremely proud of them, we just didn't get our just rewards in this match. In finishing we would like to say a big thank you to our travelling supporters who made the two hour trip down to watch this epic Cup game. We will lick our wounds regroup & look to go again. We wish Chris & his Forth Celtic FC team the very best in the next round & for the rest of this season #thecastle⚫⚪⚽